Lauren's Happenings

Saturday

Later that evening, Elise, Madison, Ashley (we ran into her before the shower while shopping for a gift and then talked the whole shower and she is now one of our BFFs) and I decided to go to the food truck event by the Mesa Temple. I was a little disappointed that there weren't more trucks. But the truck we stopped at for dinner did not disappoint- tacos from Boca's.

The night was too young to go home, so we met up with some people in my ward. They were at a park near Colten and Mason's house, chilling in hammocks and slack lining. We didn't stay too long though because Madison wasn't feel well and some people were already leaving.

Sunday

Happy Easter. :)
In honor of Easter I tried to be very insightful of what the savior meant to me. I thought about our relationship and how I can show more appreciation for His sacrifice for me. While laying in bed, I thought back to my seminary days when we were supposed to write a letter to Jesus on Valentines Day. It sounds like a weird assignment but it actually gave me a lot of growth. This year, I decided to do something similar that I think will be a new tradition- a gratitude prayer in regards to the Savior.

I wasn't sure if the easter bunny was still coming since we are all old now, but she did not disappoint ;) Also look at my dad's basket. HAHAHAHA.

My day was full of church. I interpreted a stake conference in which someone shared the sweetest story about his bestest friend that passed away and related it to our relationship with Christ. It was very tender. All the talks were very genuine. After I went to my parent's ward to hear my mom give her talk. Her topic was the resurrection. She gave the most perfect talk and brought us all to tears.

I then drove to my ward still crying a little. I was late but came just in time to hear the easter musical numbers (always my favorite).

Church was all around really good. We had treats in every class so I'd call that a win.

After church, we had the traditional ham dinner with a few house guests- Grandpa, janice, Manny (my brother's friend who got baptized while DJ was on his mission), Debbie (my mom's single friend), Larry (uncle), Kyle (cousin), and TJ and Kira (my 2nd cousin and his wife).

Grandpa also came in clutch with the homemade ice cream. :)

I didn't stay too long because my stake was having an easter musical fireside. Unfortunately the turn out was pretty crummy, but all the performers did a fabulous job.

I then ended the evening at Elise and Madison's house along with their friend Cody.

It was overall a great Easter. I spent most of my time in church (7 hours), but I guess Easter is a good day to spend time in church.

Monday

My student was still in Mexico enjoying the long weekend so I got to work at the high school. I loved it. Some highlights: PE, in which they played softball. There happened to be 3 planes that flew by pretty low while we were outside and they were all convinced they had bombs. Drama class was fun because the teacher was super animated and had funny responses to all the kids answers. It was fun to interpret. Nice change to what I usually anticipate. The photo class was interesting because it was all about photoshop. They rarely actually take their own pictures. Everything else was whatevs.

Later that night for FHE, we were combined with 4 other wards. I listened very intently in church to hear what wards would be coming. They hesitated on the last ward and I had a feeling it was Taylor's. We were at Discovery Park so it would make sense to be his ward since they all live so close to it. I debated going because I feel like I don't really socialize when there is a plethora of people. I sucked it up and went. The whole theme was "Easter" activities (egg toss, easter egg hunt and tug of war??) We started with an egg toss. Colten and I were partners and I think we had the luckiest egg ever. I dropped it 8/10 times but it never broke. In fact we put it back in the carton when we were done. Haha.

After the egg toss, I realized it was indeed Taylor's ward. That's always fun feeling like we are back in junior high and pretending the other isn't there.

The good news is, since it was Taylor's ward that also meant it was Elise and Madison's ward and they came! Blessed again for going to FHE ;)

We then ended the night watching two episodes of One Tree Hill because Elise needs to finish before they take it off Netflix in July. :(

Tuesday

It's that lucky time of year...the AZ Merit. I'm extra lucky (sarcasm) because I get to interpret it all. Although I think I would rather that than just sitting there for 3 hours. That would be awful. Today was the writing portion so I guess in reality I did sit around for a bit. In the afternoon after lunch, they just had free time. It's going to be a very chill week for me. :)

I have been working later at the office this week, but I've arrived home right when they are ready to eat, so I'd say that's a win. I had a nice break until dance, so i drank dad's fiiz drink (he didn't like all the things added in to his beloved Diet Coke), and talked with mom and Al.
Dance was great like always. We went across the floor and I was reminded once again how sad my technique has become. We also started working on a jazz dance for their end of the year show. Which means I gotta bring it!

Wednesday

Day 2 of testing. The teacher of the deaf and I had to maintain great poker faces and keep our cool so we didn't kill our student for blowing off the test. Whatever. At the end of the day, they got extra recess and left early, so I guess I can't complain.

Also shoutout to Al and mom for introducing me to Sprout's sandwich lunch time special. Good thing I'll be a block away next school year too ;)

My plans fell through for the evening, so I spent the rest of the evening watching One Tree Hill with Elise and Madison. Plus enjoying Elise's sister's facebook fight 130 comments worth.

Also can we appreciate that Lucas had a picture like this in his room.

I also have a picture like that and Alie makes fun of me everytime she sees it.

Now I have proof that it was very much a 90's kid thing.

Thursday

LAST DAY OF AZ MERIT!!! CHEERS!!!!!
It was actually super nice because the last HOUR of the day, the kids had "extra recess".
Elise had to administer it as well, so to celebrate being finished, we went to Chick Fil A for dinner. After we went to institute. I don't necessarily love the teacher but this week ended up being a really good lesson.

Friday

What a day. The teachers were told to do nothing academic, so we did just that. In the morning, two of the classes had a game of kick ball. All of us adults stood in the shade and watched. Then they had library, in which they built towers out of notecards, then lunch then here's the real money- growth and development class (Sex ed). I brushed up on some of my signs beforehand, but it was pointless, she was too embarrassed to ever look at me. The innocence of all the 6th grade girls was too cute.

They didn't have anything for me at the office, but I still had to go to the office to submit my hours. So Morgan and I talked on the phone for that hour long extravaganza.

Later that evening I had a date! We went to the Diamondback's Game and had super good seats! We were in the lowest section and right behind home plate. We scored!! I'm also not a super big baseball fan, but the 8th inning was crazy enough to keep my attention. It was a really good game AND we won!!

Saturday

Madison bought a house and today was her first official day as a home owner! That also meant moving day for the girls. We started at 7:30 and were very efficient! We did all we could with our muscles and cars until the men with their trucks came at 9:30.

I dipped out a little early so I could get Al ready for prom. She looked perfect and stunning, of course.

My ward does monthly temple trips but I've gone a total of 1 time. This month they were doing sealings. I was going to tap out, because who really likes to do sealings with their ward when they are not married. It sounds very awkward. I decided I needed to suck it up and go and do all my family names. It ended up being just the bishopric and their wives, plus 2 other young single adults. Believe it or not, it was not awkward at all. I guess I will have to add sealings to my rotation.

CONVERSATION

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CONVERSATION

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Monday

Well it's definitely the end of the year. With every single (academic) thing I interpret, my student rolls her eyes (and pretends to strangle me). She is so over school. I guess you could say she has sixthgradeitis. Pray she lasts the final 36 days and doesn't kill me.

I spent 3 hours of my life at the office filling envelopes and addressing them. I got to play music though and watch all the cars drive on the over pass, so it was bearable.

I am determined to become more social again. I was pumped all day for FHE (the first step in my socializing goal) but once it was time to actually get ready for it, I had no interest. Haha. I even came out of my room in my pjs. Then decided, you know what, even if no one cares to talk to me, I will go and find someone that is alone and could use a friend.
Well I was #blessed because OLIVIA CAME. Which is a miracle because she is engaged and getting married in like 2 weeks and has only been to fhe like one time. It was so great. I also socialized with others (don't worry) AND they had the game playing. I considered inviting myself over to someone's house to watch the last few minutes but decided to play it cool. Haha. Instead i had dad pause it on the tv and I drove home real fast.
It was a crazy end of the game to say the least. Shows how the smallest mistake can amount to much.

Also the wind was INSANE. Our recycle bin kept getting knocked over, so mom, dad and I had to go pick up the trash and bring it in.

That evening, Landon and I had our weekly drive, and I realized I'm finally coming out of my crazy emotions. So yay me.

Tuesday

My A hour student was doing group work, but it was 98% independent. Which meant no interpreting. My phone battery dies so fast though so I didn't really want to use it that early either. So I literally sat there. Then lo and behold, Olivia walked in. Saving me once again. Her student was MIA, so we "teamed" (chatted) the rest of the hour. It was glorious.

Later that evening, I went to the Easter Pageant with my "team" to figure out how we wanted to split up our interpreting. It was super helpful to see it visually too and compare our notes at the same time. After the first show, they had another in Spanish- still dress rehearsal. I knew I was late to dance so I decided to stay and help.
I was called in my ward to be a frontliner which means we help with parking, seating and what not. I figured they probably needed help and sure enough 5/20 showed up. So they put me right to work.

Wednesday

My student got out at 12:25, which of course is heaven. I still had to stay til 3 though, so I was sent to the high school. My bosslady knows Olivia and I are BFFs, so she let me team with her the rest of the day.

Later that evening was my actual shift for easter pageant. This time I was assigned to handicapped parking, which was much better than the dirt lot the night before. There were also 3 other people with me. We were in the perfect spot because we could also see the pageant while we were "monitoring" the parking lot. The girls with me were too cute and sweet, so that made it go by super fast.
While we were working, some high school boys came and tried talking to us. When it was over, one of them came up to me and asked for my number. I told him I was way older than him, but he wouldn't back down. He still wanted to walk around and help me, so I put him to work. Haha.
It was super fun serving though. I loved it.

Thursday.

My student was out so I got to spend the whole day at the high school. I also found out I'll be there all day next year so I'm pretty excited about that! It's always fun being around so many different students but especially with all the interpreters.

GRAND CANYON

My stake went last year, but I didn't want to take off 2 days- I wanted to save those for Baby Conrad who was being born the same month. I was kinda bummed though. This year, it came around but was the same weekend as Easter Pageant, which meant Taylor was in it, and I was interpreting the Saturday we'd get back. When we broke up, I decided it would be a super positive thing in my life right now, so I signed up 2 weeks before the trip. Haha.

I worked out for a week before and hoped it was enough. Haha

My car was one of the last to make it to camp- we left at 6pm. While we were going, Jason realized he forgot his tennis shoes, so we took a trip to Walmart- thankfully his feet did great in his new shoes.

We got into camp at 11, and I was EXHAUSTED (going off of 4 hours of sleep), so I brushed my teeth and climbed into my sleeping bag.

Side note, we had a meeting the week before and a girl said I could stay in her tent with her. She ended up bailing and didn't come AND didn't tell me she wasn't going. Thankfully, there were 2 other girls in a 8 person tent and they let me sleep with them.

Friday

We had to be up and ready by 4:30 to catch the bus over to the start of the hike. I asked just about everyone to please make sure I was woken up because I wouldn't have my phone to set an alarm. Luckily, I was indeed woken up. I was PUMPED. I just wanted to get going.

Side note, the night before, Brother Harrison gave a run down for the day. He scared everyone about how hard it is. At least 10 people dropped out. I did a little self check but decided I could do it. I didn't feel too concerned about it.

The bus was pretty packed, so me and some people in my ward hopped in a leader's car over to the trail. We made it before the bus and started 10 minutes before everyone else. I felt pretty proud of us for keeping a fast enough pace that no one caught up to us.

This was my group: Brother Clark, Colten, Aaron, Mason, Randall (he was actually just in the picture and then did his own thing. Haha), Jason, Megan, Nico and me.

The sunrise was beautiful.

Especially the way it hit all the rocks and the different colors that showed.

The hike was split up into two parts.

Kaibab Trail-9 miles then Bright Angel another 9 miles.

So for 9 miles, we walked down the canyon and enjoyed the beauty.

I tried to snack occasionally and drink water- I think I did pretty good because I felt fabulous.

We made it down the 9 miles in 3 hours which was great! We were way ahead of schedule.

At the end of Kaibab, we hit a bridge and from there it gradually starts going up.

At the second bridge, the boys got out the hammock to take pictures. Colten advertises for a hammock company and takes pictures of cool places he travels. It was nice to sit for a second, but I was mostly just antsy to get up. I was worried it might be a struggle and so I wanted to get it over with. I was determined to get up before dinner.

My not so favorite part was hiking along the river where it was sandy. Definitely harder to walk. I was banking on the way up working different parts of my legs, or I was going to be crawling out.

Side note, the grand canyon had such variety in it's environment- desert scene, and tropical. It was crazy how diverse it was. I pictured the whole thing to be deserty.

Most people stopped at this bridge to eat lunch but since we made it down so early, and were still doing great, we decided to wait. After another 4 miles, we eventually stopped and changed socks. I realized my toes was bleeding all over my socks. Haha. I left it anyway because I thought going up wouldn't be as awful on it and I was too lazy to stop and bandage it.

After another mile or so, I realized my shoe had a blood stain and everyone was so concerned I was going to bleed out (lolz). I eventually stopped and wrapped it. Around the same time, I semi ate my lunch because I felt myself getting weaker.

My whole goal at this point was to make it to Indian Garden- water station and mini break. Once I got there though, I decided to get a head start from my group and take off while they rested. I ended up walking with these cute 60 year olds for a little while. They were the cutest. My group eventually caught up. Once we got to the dreaded last 3 miles we all separated. Everyone made it very known to me that the last three miles were worse than the whole 15 miles combined that we had just done. I was dreading it. We split up at this point. Mason and I (asthma buddies) went up together. We were a good team because we both needed little breathers at the same points.

At some points, I honestly thought I might have an asthma attack. I could hear it in my lungs. I said multiple prayers and could even feel the prayers of my family. Mason told me to just not think about it, so I sang primary songs and hymns in my head. Ironically the song, "Teach Me to Walk in the Light", came to my mind. Punny. It really did help, plus our little breather breaks.

We were told that every mile there would be a bathroom. After awhile, we felt like there was no way we hadn't gone another mile. I was getting a little hopeless. We eventually found out we only had a mile and a half left and the bathrooms weren't every mile. PRAISE. That was the most joy I felt all day. Haha. We did indeed make it out, despite my hopeless feelings at times.

I also had the thought that if I were to post an instagram right now, I would not be saying very nice things about the Grand Canyon. I kinda hated it at that point.

I made it out at a "grand" time of 3:30pm (met my goal of before dinner!)

We then took a bus back to camp. It dropped us off at our camp grounds, to which we then had to walk 10 more minutes to our campsite. When we got there, we convinced our kind friend Nico to drive us to the showers. The shower itself was such a struggle but so worth it.

Thankfully, they moved dinner up to 5, so we eventually headed over there. Also shoutout to Dillon (sophomore year summer school BFF) for bringing me a DP from their campsite ;)

After dinner, I played games with some boys in Temple View- all who played Uno WAY WRONG. I don't understand how you can be so clueless on how to play Uno. Honestly the easiest game. Haha. Definitely lots of laughs though.

I eventually walked back over to my campsite to enjoy their fire and their company. We only stayed for an hour or so and then we had to go over for a devotional. It was pretty quick, which was okay because I was pretty cold (no thanks to wet hair). After the devotional, I decided it was late enough for me to go to sleep. 8:30. Haha.

Saturday

As predicted, I woke up at 2 am. That was still 6 hours so I wasn't too mad, mostly just bored. I finally turned on my phone and scrolled through instagram- 2 days worth. I then laid there for another hour. I also tried to roll out my calves in hopes they wouldn't be too sore/hurt when I got up.

At one point I thought our camp was on fire and then I realized Colten had also woken up and started up the fire. I considered joining him (and Aaron at this point) but decided I'd rather stay warm in my sleeping bag. Haha. I was pretty much in and out of sleep til 7.

We all had breakfast together and then people started packing and faded out. The boys in my group gave Brother LeSueur this cute pin. We sure love Brother LeSueur.

I had to get back home at a decent hour so I'd have to time get ready for Easter Pageant. My group agreed to leave at 9, and we actually did it (we even left 9 minutes ahead of schedule ;) ).

When we made it home, my list of priorities were shower, unpack, eat (dad picked up Costa Vida or eating would have been second), laundry, get ready.

I kinda pushed Easter Pageant out of my mind, so I briefly reviewed while my hair was drying.

Easter Pageant

I got there at 5:30 to get my costume, save seats for my parents and get my headsets (the spoken language was spanish, so we needed headsets to hear it in english). When I was walking over, this guy that was in the pageant caught up to me. I felt kinda pathetic because his pace was faster than I was willing to walk. He casually asked what I had been up to that day. When I told him, I felt a lot less silly for being so slow. Haha.

I met up with my interpreting team and we were eventually all ready for devotional. When devotional was over, we figured out how to set up our headsets so they were out of the way. Then mingled with the deaf people in the deaf section (plus my cute parents who came to support me).

The whole thing went okay I guess. I'd give myself a grade of 85%. My headdress fell off in the middle of it and my headphones kept falling out. I had to interpret a song which was my number on focus of practice. It actually went very smooth- so I was proud of that.

I loved being so close to the stage. There were some points in the performance when we would get to turn around and watch and I loved how I could actually pick people out. Overall it was such a great experience, and a great reminder of what Christ truly went through for each of us.