Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013 review.

2013: the year where I...


JANUARY



>>>I started my last semester of high school and took advanced photography where I fell in love with portraiture.


>>>I learned that I love Les Mis {and every single song that comes with it}.

>>>I spent basically every open hour laughing and adventuring around Montrose with Kelsey.

>>>Zach turned 20 and I began realizing just how excited I am for him to get home and for us to go to college together.



FEBRUARY 


>>> One of my life long goals was complete: I was accepted to BYU.

>>>I got to go to All State Honor Choir with my mom {and my dad came to my concert as a surprise}, I went to Adam's State Honor Choir with some of my favorite choir girls, and I got to be a part of dinner theater.


MARCH

>>>My last season of tennis started.


>>>I took some of the funniest pictures with my best friends. I still don't know what high school would have been like without these girls.


>>>I spent 99% of my spring break doing my FCCLA project with my best friend Katie.

>>>The other 1% was spent with these cute kids (:


APRIL

>>>Katie and I competed at FCCLA state with out project "The Tribe"... and we qualified for nationals for the second year in a row (:




>>>I had a blast at prom with Jacob!


MAY

>>>I started saying goodbye to my high school extracurriculars that made the last 4 years so wonderful: orchestra. tennis. choir. FCCLA. NHS. BIONIC.


>>>I graduated high school.


>>>I graduated seminary.



>>>My friends and I painted the Mystery Machine and it was one of the most fun parts of summer.


JUNE

>>>I spent the weekdays working at a kids day camp and the weekends four-wheeling and boating with my parents. In the meantime, I fell in love with the beautiful place I live in.


>>>I stargazed for hours with my best friends multiple times a week. {this is no exaggeration}

>>>I spent at least half of the summer with Katie {hello sleepovers for nights on end} and we had some of the funniest memories ever.

JULY

>>>I spent a week over pioneer day at our cabin with my awesome family (: I realized that I loved small towns.


>>>I had the most epic water fight with my friends.

>>>I house-sat for a friend and fell in love with Maltese dogs {I will own one. someday}.


AUGUST

>>>We celebrated Harry Potter's birthday.


>>>I went camping and said goodbye to the girls that mean the entire world to me.


>>>I went on my senior trip to Boston with my family. {both here and here}


>>>I went to my first real baseball game with some of the coolest cousins around {however, I wish their siblings were there... cough cough Amanda and Jenny}


>>>I packed up my stuff and moved to another state and started at BYU.


SEPTEMBER

>>>I went to my first BYU football game as a college student.


>>>I went to my first concert with my best friend sam and my soon-to-be best friend and roommate Kayla.

>>>I spent an entire night laughing until I cried with the two girls who have become my best friends.


>>>I learned that the saying "good grades, social life, sleep: pick two." definitely applied to college.

OCTOBER

>>>I got to go to the Saturday morning session of general conference with the sweetest girls (:


>>>True Blue Foam!!


>>>I met studio C and then later that day got to see Katie for the first time since college started and spent the night with her and sam for the first time in months.

>>>took the typical hall pictures with the girls that make living in dorms so fun...




>>>Went to my second concert and realized just how great concerts are.

>>>Carved pumpkins for FHE.


>>>Dressed up as a birthday present for halloween with Kayla and learned that I hate haunted houses.


NOVEMBER

>>>spent many a night watching The Paradise with Cady.

>>>I spent almost every single night talking with these girls.


>>>Girls Night Out In with my entire hall


>>>Spent Thanksgiving with my favorite people {also known as my family...}


>>>watched my best friend open her mission call to Jamaica.


DECEMBER

>>>Decorated my dorm room for Christmas


>>>Went to Temple Square with my ward.


>>>pretended like I was in high school again and got ready for a dance with Cady and took weird pictures with Hunter

>>>My second goal came true: get accepted to the London study abroad program.

>>>Went to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert with my family and John.

>>>Spent Christmas break with all my siblings and their families {minus, of course, the missionary brother}

>>>talked to Zach on christmas and got really, really excited for him to get home in 5 months.

2013... overall.
This year I learned that I was so lucky to have the best friends I had in high school. I was so lucky to have Sam at BYU, and Katie to come visit, and Kelsey to facetime, and Kelly to have coffee trader catch-up sessions with. I learned that college really is harder than high school, but so worth it. I learned that you can become better friends with the people you live with full-time more quickly than imaginable. I made two amazing best friends. I learned that one of the very few things I don't like about BYU is that you can't see any stars. I learned that I have so much to grateful for.

2014... looking forward to:
new classes, weekend trips to BYUI to visit Katie, meeting even more new people, enjoying everything BYU has to offer, meeting my new niece {due in february!}, going on even more fun dates and adventures, saying goodbye to Sam for 18 months for her mission, watching Downton Abbey with Cady, singing along to Wicked with Kayla, getting to see my brother after 2 whole years and spending one last summer working in Montrose, moving to London and touring Europe... and sooo much more.

Here's to a great 2013 and an even better 2014 {if that's possible}!!

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

*no, there isn't a picture for every event, and no, this isn't every exciting event from this year.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

it's the most wonderful time of year.

Christmas! This is my absolute favorite time of the year. In the last week, I finished my first semester at college. Over the last few months I've learned so much! I've also learned that as much as I would love to keep track of every detail in my life, it is clearly not working. So instead of trying to catch up on everything I missed, I think I'll just fast forward (: Ryan and Tiffany are here for Christmas and I'm so glad to be home! Usually we have a big program every Christmas Eve, but because of lack of people we didn't for the first time since I can remember. After our Christmas dinner, my parents and I read the Christmas story in Luke and watched the Mormon Tabernacle Choir christmas concert from 2012 {the absolute best one I've ever gone to... and I've been almost every year since I can remember}. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be better than spending Christmas Eve at home with my parents (:




Merry Christmas!

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

Saturday, December 14, 2013

the things I haven't posted about.

winter formal dance, finals week, temple square, rumbi grill, you know.... just the usual.

First and foremost...

^^^After my awesome news about London, Kayla, Cady and I decided to celebrate with some Rumbi Grill! {I know we're poor college students but sometimes you just have to embrace, right?!?} Rumbi Grill is probably one of my favorite restaurants in the whole world and for some crazy reason Kayla had NEVER been there! {it's a pity, I know.} It was on our roommate bucket list too... so it worked out perfectly (:


p.s. can I just say that I literally have no idea how I could have possibly gotten a better roommate? This girl is the absolute BEST.

^^^Also, this week I spent 99% of my "free time" {if that's what you call it} writing papers. I did, however, turn in my last paper at 10 o'clock last night... so I'm home free {minus a project, 2 essays, and 5 finals...}

^^^Thursday night was the annual Helaman Halls Winter Formal Invitational!! Hunter asked me to go and it was an absolute blast! It could not have been better. Hunter is a cool guy, folks. I also got to get ready with the beautiful Cady with Kayla helping us along the way, a major plus!


I honestly have no idea what I would do at college without this girl!
The adventures we have are marvelous!
{photo credit goes to my awesome roomie}

this is considered our awkward picture for the evening. yes it was intentionally strange.
Can we talk about how much better mormon/BYU dances are?? Because they are sooo much better than highschool. so much. Plus this dance had everything. Fancy desserts, ice sculptures, carriage rides, crafts {it's a mormon dance, guys. of course.}, pictures... you name it! They've spent the last two days decorating for it. Seriously the best.

^^^Last Saturday our ward went to Temple Square to see the Christmas Lights. Every single year that I can remember, I've gotten to see them, and every single year they never fail to amaze me!







^^^Last night, Cady and I studied at the library for... a little while... six or seven hours. At about 11:30 we realized that the library life was not how we wanted to spend our last Friday night of this semester, so we decided to go watch Home Alone with some friends at the Dollar Theater at 12:30 {yes, there was a movie starting at 12:30 a.m.} Can we talk about how wonderful a dollar theater {that actually costs 2 dollars} is?? REALLY REALLY WONDERFUL. Also, spending more time at the library than anywhere else during your waking hours for the last week makes a person go a bit crazy. Let's just say, if you're in the mood to laugh at absolutely everything, Home Alone is the best movie choice there is.

^^^Lastly, we finished the first season of The Paradise. and since we live in America we can't watch the second season. rough life I tell you. the only problem with British Television. ahhh.

Now, just finals week ahead then home for Christmas! It'll be weird because I'm leaving my best friends and my home... to go home to my best friends and my home. College is crazy. And I'm loving every single minute of it.

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

GUESS WHO'S MOVING TO LONDON?

today was a great day to begin with. I mean, I only have 2 papers left to write this week, I got an A on a science test I didn't think I would do well on, and I won free Jamba Juice.

oh. and I got accepted to the

BYU London Study Abroad Program Fall 2014

so, yeah, 3 1/2 months living in london next fall? Sounds alright to me. I would say that today was the best day ever. You know how I've wanted to do a study abroad in London for the last, ohhhhh, 5 years? WELL. it's happening!! One email, some screaming for joy, then crying out of happiness, and BOOM. this girl is moving to LONDON!! you know what else this means? It means that I now have a justified reason for spending ten minutes every night before I go to bed reading blogs from girls on study abroad. fantastic.

google images

I hope your day is going as fantastically as mine (:

Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

ps I'm sorry if you're following me on other social media because I definitely posted my awesome news EVERYWHERE!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

I take it all back.

you know how in my last post I said that I didn't have much homework? I take it all back. seriously. I have 6 papers and a multi-model project due this week. {ok, one paper is due wednesday, and a couple on thursday}. Long story short, as much as I would love to share all of my pictures from the Temple Square lights last weekend, it'll have to wait. because I'm going to bed. after a nice little 5 hour session in the library. all so I can wake up and do it again tomorrow!

In the meantime, you can listen to this awesome Bach fugue for organ that I wrote my humanities paper on tonight! I'm still just really astounded by the fact that someone can play this...



p.s. don't worry. I've finished one paper, and I don't have to start from scratch on the others because I've been working on them for a while.

plus, by me finishing...

6 papers + 1 multi-model project and presentation + 5 finals = I get a three week break! 

Then a new semester with new classes (:

Happy Monday!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas.

GUESS WHAT? I finally feel like it's Christmas season. The snow, the lights, the music. everything. and it's great.

oh. and the finals. and the final papers. and the finals stress. and the studying. but let's not talk about that.

This week was awesome! Episodes of The Paradise with Cady, ice skating and FreezeFest, Austenland with McKay, nightly christmas stories, not having a ton of homework, and decorating our dorm room! {yes. that was on our bucket list} don't forget Kayla has a blog right here!









everyone needs a classic corny "family" christmas tree picture.





The snow? the snow is phenomenal. {even if montrose did get their first snow day in 20 years and I was stuck walking around in below 0 weather...}

Anyways, I have papers to write and a room to clean before our ward trip tonight! So I'm leaving you with my current favorite christmas song... although let's be real. there is no such thing as a bad christmas song. I decided that I'm just a really big fan of any of the classic christmas songs, just in case you were wondering (:


Sincerely,
Erica Michelle

p.s. today Cady, Kayla, and I went to the creamery on ninth {you see... we sorta kinda have a lot of extra dining dollars to spend before the end of the year...} and I had my first cheeseburger!

...I'm not sure what all the hype was about...


In two weeks I'll be home and done with finals (: