What now?

My life has been so crazy lately that when I've squeezed in time to blog, there has been so much to blog about that I never get it all down, but now I'm back to the real world where all I do is work 25 hours a week and attend 13 credits of school. EFY has made me realize how much time I have to myself when I'm not being a counselor. Reading for fun has been such a foreign idea that I'm excited to jump back into a fictional world every once in a while.

I'm currently enrolled in a golf course for this fall and I couldn't be more excited. I went to my first class and swung a club for the first time in a year and I drove it about 200 yards! I'm paying the price for my over excitement three days later with calves and thighs that are still sore. I'll definitely be blogging in the future about my accomplishments... or my failures, I'll let you know ; )

My mission papers are completely filled out. I have my dentist appointment this Thursday and my doctors appointment a week from Thursday and then I'm done! I plan on putting them in sometime around the 1st of October or sooner just depending. Which basically means I could have my call with in 6 weeks! I could try and express my excitement, but I just wouldn't be able to fully encompass how I feel.

So you ask, What now Sara? Well it goes a little like this; school, work, graduation, mission, and school. It's kind of like one big three year school sandwich. I feel really good about it. Don't you?

Now this is how you do Disneyland

I love Disneyland! Wait I need to say it one more time, I LOVE DISNEYLAND! This place is magic! I mean I've been like a bazillion times but never like this. I got to go with 74 other EFY counselors and spend 3 days at the happiest place on Earth! Did I mention that I loved it! I got to know some people so much better, not to mention I got to know a bunch of new people. I had te opportunity to jump around a little bit so I wasn't hanging with the same people the entire time. I tried not to ride with the same person twice but failed miserably by day two. Here are some awesome pics from the 5 day adventure :)

Space Mountain :)

Just my roomies having a big spooning session.

Who doesn't love Tower of Terror!

My new friend Liese and me in line for Screamin!

Sterling and I showin are Astro blaster skills.

Some of my favorite things about this trip:

• I met some of the coolest people ever
• I loved being with first timers and seeing their faces after/before each ride
• Flash dance parties in Tomorrowland with 74 EFY counselors is the BOMB
• Being able to give away a pass along card and the articles of faith
• Eating at the Mexican Resturant in FrontierLand
• Riding the train and seeing the dinosaurs
• TOWER OF TERROR (we road it like 4 times)
• Watching people fall in love
• Holding hands
• Going body surfing at Huntington Beach
• Eating at In N Out Burger
• Overheating in Death Valley
• Sharing everything
• Denny's ice cream and hashbrowns and 1 am
• Tinkerbell face cards
• Driving for the first time in Orange County (we all survived!)
• Indiana Jones is still one of my favorites
• Smiling and laughing for 5 days straight with some of the coolest people I've ever met

EFY: "Ponder Still"

My sixth and final week of EFY...

Games Night the whole company

McKell, Some girl I don't know, Belle, and me making the Cingular bars ;)

Check out their skills with roller coaster!

I can't believe how awesome this week was. I know I know, I say that every week, but I couldn't think of a better way to finish off my summer of EFY. These girls were so fun and talkative! Pizza night was a definite success. The boys and the girls really clicked well together and I've never had a company that listened as well as this one. Are you ready for this...? I actually had so much fun at games night this week! They actually listened and didn't talk when I was explaining the rules! It was amazing! Not to mention they actually listened to each other when they did their cheer for games night. My girls actually ate breakfast with me and dinner too. It was a lot of fun. And I did something I've never done before! Music program! I loved it. I even got about 8 of my youth to do it with me. It was a lot of fun and I really felt like it was worth it. Singing hymns is amazing, even if I am partially tone def. What a week...

My last list of lessons learned at efy:

• No matter what I end up loving my roommate
• Wheat Thins aren't as magical as I thought they were
• Games night can be fun!
• There is a group of 38+ youth that can listen: miracle
• I get dehydrated when I don't bring a case of water
• BBQ pizza is definitely the best... but only from Papa Johns
• Jumping pictures are freaking cool
• You can get along with anyone if you pray a lot
• The $9 watch from Wal-Mart was priceless
• The tent is still pretty rad
• Its a lot more fun if you don't care what anyone thinks about you
• COW's can ruin an entire summer of efy if they get out
• Playing cupid isn't always a good idea
• I love spirally bound conference issues of the Ensign
• Country Time Strawberry Lemonade is delicious
• The shaved ice place across from Helamen Halls is delicious
• The more you teach, the better you get at it
• I LoVe EfY!
  
  
  

The co's: Jared, Me, Lauren, and Greg

My girls: Taylor, Danielle, Kenna, Miranda, Allie, Brittany, Me, Taylor, Maddie, and Marissa

SisterS! Elyse and me.

The whole company: Ponder Still

I was really sad starting this week thinking I would be incredibly depressed once my summer of EFY was over, but its weird, because I'm not. I loved EFY as much as one person possibly could, but I'm so excited for what the future holds. I'm excited for this fall and graduation, but most importantly for my mission. Its so close, I feel like a three year old on the edge of their seat in primary singing Jesus wants me for a sunbeam! I know I keep saying I'm excited, but the excitement has intensified so much with each week as I've seen multiple friends get their calls I think, "That's going to be me!"

100th Blog Post

So you know when your in Kindergarten and you make those cool little crafts with random things on it? When you get that little colored half sheet of paper asking you to bring in 100 of something. Whether its penny's, macaronni noodles, or cotton balls. It's super exciting, or at least you thought your 100 toothpicks were cool, until someone else got to bring in 100 tootsie rolls. What is it about 100? Its not just kids either, adults have a strange obsession with 100 too. There are 100 pennies to a dollar, we even make a big deal out of the first 100 days of a new presidential office. Why is it that 100 is special? I've pondered on this question for the past few days as I've logged on to my dashboard to see that it said "99 posts" under my blog title. As I thought about what I would do for my 100th post I questioned, why is it special? And then it hit me. 100 is a unique milestone. You start at 1 and then it took me two years to hit 100. The next big milestone is 1,000, it will probably take me 10 years or more to hit that milestone. Then the next big milestone is 10,000, and we alll know I'm not every going to get there. 100 is special because it is a milestone that we can reach in a relatively short time. Nobody notices when your at 247 or 385. 1,000 is special too, just not one we see very often because its such a big number. I think 100 is special, maybe I'll do an ode to 100 sometime.

Bonus Video

EFY: "Beareth all Things"

Another week at EFY....

Yay for the shaved Ice place that gave counselors free shaved ice:)

Pretty sure half my kids called me Lafonda, and the other half called me Aunt Shaniqua...

Yay for 3D glasses!

Tim's beautiful EFY chalk artwork.

This week was so awsome that I had to put up twice as many pictures to cover all the awsomeness that it was. It was a swelteringly hot week, as you can see by the fact that Tim tended to roll up his pants everyday, which is totally against the rules, the little rebel. This week was actually a week of some firsts. We had about 900 youth and the session was in a tent... yes a tent, a very big white air conditioned tent. It was in "tents" haha. Despite the fact that if you got caught in the middle of the tent with hundreds of youth between you and the air conditioner it wasn't that bad.

The whole EFY counselor thing has become such second nature to me that I can't even remember what its like to not be at EFY, this was my third straight week and I have my fourth and final straight week next week, bringing my efy experience to a grand total of 6 glorious weeks! Its been a crazy summer. I haven't had much time to do anything really, but all that aside I think I've had the time of my life as a counselor.

See this is how tired we get, we have to sleep in the back of classrooms while classes are going on... poor Bro. Beecher, he is a good teacher.

See this day we found the sunshine faces in the nursery and had to sing to Sarah on her really bad day :)

Here are some of the things I learned and loved this week:

• Team algae is the bomb
• I love having dances in the JFSB square
• Jumping for three songs straight is a bad idea
• Jesus wants me for a sunbeam :)
• You need to drink 6 bottles of water a day and get 6 hours of sleep
• Bubble wands are an instant cool factor
• Kids love 3D chalk
• Sometimes its not worth 15 minutes of sleep to have to drag yourself back out of bed.
• I LOVE the Cannon Center
• I finally learned all the dances!
• Still no lock box duty :(
• Eric D. Stokes + girls batheroom + plunger = priceless
• I'm always better friends with my roomates than with my co's
• I love the little fridge in Helamen Halls
• I know a kid that can balance a vaccuum on his chin
• I'm still known as the weird girl with the jacket
• Disneyland is in 3 weeks!!!!
  

Fantastic Four Co Counselors: Tim, Me, Tyler, Dani

Those studly GQ boys.

Me and my girls going James Bond style ;)

"Beareth All Things"