Farewell. I made it through the semester. I made it through this week. I'm packed. I'm heading to bed, and then the airport. I got set apart tonight. Wow. I'm a Sister Jones. Have a great summer! I'm pretty sure I will!!! My sister will be putting my e-mails, and pictures up on this blog, so keep a heads up. My address will be

YPM Sister Jones

PO Box 215

Nauvoo, IL 62354

(or for packages...)
YPM Sister Jones

975 Young Street

Nauvoo, IL 62354

I'm in for the time of my life. See ya August 17th!

Love,

Sister Jones

Long time, no see

Yes, I'm alive. Not that anyone really cares, or even reads my blog, due to the fact that it's never updated. Because in all my free time, that's what I do, blog. Ok, so obviously since I have no new posts, I don't have free time. Such is life. Who really does have free time? No one really, and if they do, it probably means they're not doing something they're supposed to be, or should be doing. But hey, I don't judge.

What have I been doing? Well I'm going to start with an obsession I sort of have. Her name is Jenny Oaks Baker. She came to SUU a few weeks ago to do a master class, and I got to play in it. I played for Jenny Oaks Baker. Oh. My. Gosh. Talk about intimidating. She's amazing!!!!!!! She's incredible!!!! ah!!!!! ok, anyway, the master class was good. She complimented my great intonation! That made me happy, because she told the girl that played before me that, and the girl that played before me has perfect pitch. I don't, and I still got complicated. yay! The next night my friends and I went down to hear her play at Dixie. I don't know of anyway that can play with such incredible passion, and love and she does. She has the greatest personality, and she is sooooooooo nice. Not to mention absolutely gorgeous. wow. Her new album just came out. You should check out her website at http://www.jennyoaksbaker.com. We're even friends on Facebook. :) Ok, so there you have it. My new obsession.

Spring break was two weeks ago. It. Was. So. Needed. More. Than. Anything. I went to Southern California with my good (good is an understatement) friend Geneil. She's from Moreno Valley so we stayed at her parents house, slept 10 hours a night, read in bed in the morning, and ate 3 meals a day. None of which we have been doing all semester. It was amazing. All week we ate good food, had good company, didn't even get sick of each other, went to the car wash, walked through the "Mechanical" Gardens ( :]), went to the beach, the San Diego Zoo, talked late into the night, layed in the sun, jacuzzied it up, watched the stars, and planes, ate more good food, hugged lots, kisses from Granny, entertained by a 13 year old, chinese with Grandpa Albert, saw Blindside, and found even more love and appreciation for how amazing the Perkins are. Thank you Geneil. I love you!

I made it through another week of school. I can do it. I will do it. I will finish the semester alive, and well. This week was probably the best week of the whole semester. Things are just better. Better than they have been for a LONG time. I am grateful for that.

My accomplishment for the week---I finally finished the Children of Promise series by Dean Hughes. It's a historical fiction series about WWII. I reccomend this series for everyone. It's amazing. I started it at the beginning of the school year, but despite lack of time for spare reading, it has taken me this long to finish. I got the 4th book finished over spring break, and most of the 5th one finished, so I got it read this week!!! woo hoo!

I was at work last night, and my co-worker asked me why I wasn't at the CNA meeting, and I told her because I was school, singing in a recital at the same time the meeting started. I asked her what they talked about, and she told me just the usual same old same old, but then she told me who CNA of the month was. It was ME! whoa! I was so surprised! I had just told this same girl like two weeks earlier that there was no way a graveyard aide could have get employee of the month, or anything like that because we're just there at night, and no one really cares about us. Finally my hard work has amounted to something. I seriously work my butt off at night, but I never thought anyone noticed. It's nice to be noticed once in a while. I don't know what exactly I get for being CNA of the month, but hey! It kept me smiling from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. :)

I have amazing friends. Just throwin that out there. We had dinner together Thursday night, and I had to leave for work at 9, and they stayed and did all the dishes, and I came home to a clean room, and a made bed. I love them. :) ( Those little cleaning elves know who they are, but I won't say names...Shaye, Geneil, and Karyn.....)

Random tibits: I love Easter candy. It's the best. I have to plan my roommates bridal shower. I don't know what the crap I'm doing. Any ideas? Pastry Pub is a bad bad bad bad bad habit. I love it too much. I went there twice today. No wonder I got fat this semester. I don't know any of my German song. Oh, or my other Italian piece. This is my last semester of violin. I don't want to talk about it. I've already cried too much about it, but I just don't love it anymore. I will always play, but I can't keep doing violin, and voice. It's pscho. Only pscho's do that, and I'm trying really hard to be normal. Oh wait, I'm a music major. No one is really normal. I'm excited to go home for Easter next weekend. I haven't been home for a long time. Why is everyone getting married? My computer has a virus. I love sleepovers. It's fast Sunday. I leave for Nauvoo.......so. soon. 42. days. too. much. to. do. But you know what's weird? It always gets done. I don't know how, but it does. Carne Asada tacos tomorrow! whooo hooo. Ok. well that's my life in a nutshell. At this moment at least.

What am I supposed to title this?

As I was plunging my toilet today I thought, "Hmmm, a hole would be easier." It's not that I just had to plunge my toilet. There was no reason for it. It overflowed for no reason. Now it has been my experience that when the water gets to the top it usually stops. Because of this experience I wasn't as fast as I should have been to the get under the toilet lid thingy to start pulling chords and stuff to make the water stop running. Yeah, the water didn't stop running when it got to the top of toilet. No good. Now, this is funny in of itself. At least I think so, but uh, I was just about to get in the shower when this occured. So not only is there water all over my bathroom floor, I just happen to be naked. Cool. So here I am with only an hour before I have to be back to my classes, and plunging my toilet naked. yup. My life rocks. I am proud to report I laughed the whole time. It was funny. I also got my bathroom floor clean, showered, hair dried, towels in the washer, some lunch, and I was still on time to class. :)
Hope that made your day, like it did mine...(well it made my day until I saw my bank account, and then there was no more laughing for me, but you shoud keep laughing. It's good for you.)
Keep holdin' on. :)

Christmas Break...in January....In February....The End of February?

So.............hmm....it's been a while. It's definitely not because I have not had anything to write about. It's actually the complete opposite. I've felt so many things the last month and a half, that I don't know how to put it in words. The basically sum it up, it feels like this semester is what hell is like. Ok, not really, but kind of. This is going to be a long post of a lot of little things. I'm going to start with Christmas break, yeah, I know it was just Valentine's Day, but whatever.

Christmas Eve is a big thing at our house. Candles. China. The whole sha-bang.

I made this beautiful salad. That's right. Nathan and Jenny. We'll talk about them later. Christmas was good. It was also Jenny's 16th birthday on the 27th. I CAN NOT believe she's 16. I don't like it. She got her braces off a couple of months ago. She looks really good. Plus I really want red hair.
Two days after Christmas I drove up to meet my friend Karyn at her house in West Valley. (ghetto part of Salt Lake ;) ) We went to Cafe Rio, split a burrito, (We like to do this often because it's half the cost, and then we don't over eat. Good thinkin eh?) and then went to downtown to a Octapella. They're an awesome men's acapella group. Karyn's cousin is one of the guy's in it. Then we slept at her house, and went to her ward the next morning. I loved her ward. I love you, Karyn. I'm so glad we met at school this year. I have especially grown to love you even more in the last couple weeks. I'm very grateful for our friendship, and I'm glad you can put up with me. :)

New Year's Eve? Yeah, pretty much I stayed at my house with my mom. My friend Laura came over for a bit, we played some games, and I think I was asleep by one. Go me.

As for this semester. After the first week ended it felt like it should have been mid March already. It was that long. Stupid people. That's the biggest thing. Stupid people. I don't get it. I don't like liars. They hurt people. A lot. They ruin relationships. That's what makes the semester long, and hellish. Speaking of hell, my phrase for the semester is "Oh my hell." I say it all the time because there is NOTHING else to say. I have been speechless countless times, and I never run out of things to say, but yes, stupid people cause you to run out of things to say.

Work. Another part of hell. I decided I love my job. I love the people. But when you work 3 graveyards a week, and have 21 credits, you begin to have a hard time loving your residents that don't stay in bed, and pee the bed 800 times a night, but I get a paycheck. I finally took my stupid CNA test this week, so next week my paycheck will go up two dollars an hours. That's a lot. I should have done it a long time ago. Stupid me.

Tithing. I've been sooooo good at paying my tithing this year. Amazing things happen when you pay your tithing. Like for instance. The head of your department tells you that they had some "extra" scholarship money, and would like to give you some because they know how hard you're working. The "extra" scholarship money that I will be getting just happens to be half of what I need for Nauvoo. God loves me.

Ice Cream. I am going to get so fat, and have clogged arteries from how much ice cream I have eaten this semester. It's stupid people's fault. and school. and the music department. and stupid people. I love ice cream. for some reason it solves a lot of problems. and pizza. and skipping class to get ice cream, and pizza. That's what solves problems.

Sleep. hahahahahah that's a funny one. What's that. Yeah. I don't sleep. I'm a witch with a capital B almost all the time due to the amount of sleep I'm not getting.

Homework. yeah. don't do that. pretty sure my professors hate me.

Practicing? haha...continuing. oh wait, I had this singing competition thingy last week, and the day before I sounded soooooooooo bad. So bad. I started crying I sang so poorly. (note: I cry a lot easier when I have only slept 2 hours in 36 hours. ) Anyway I actually placed in the competition. 3rd. I don't know how that happened. Hey I won 15 bucks. It paid for my lunch at the Garden House.

Roommates. all good. but one. I don't want to talk about it. I get angry and say bad words.

Boy. This boy that I have talked about on previous posts left for his mission. I went up that morning for his farewell after I got off work at 6 am Sunday morning. I seriously had not really thought about him very much for all of January, and then I saw him...Smile. Apparently I was not over him. And to make it worse I bawled the entire time he sang a musical number. No good.

Boy. What is considered dating? There was this kid that liked me. A lot more than I liked him. But I thought I liked him. We went on a bunch of dates, and stuff, and then he stopped talking to me. I was confused. I finally got him to explain last week, and he said he would talk to me this week. He text me on Tuesday. I still haven't text him back. I don't know if I want to...yet? Boys think girls are confusing. No folks, I don't think so. Boys are c.o.n.f.u.s.i.n.g.

Nauvoo. I leave in less than 3 months. I CAN NOT wait. It's starting to sink in that I'm actually going. CAN NOT wait. I'm going to Salt Lake this weekend to sing with my future mission companions.

Singles Awareness Day. aka Valentines. I had a bunch of girlfriends over. We made pizza and had a fun night. Just us girls. We had a sleep over, and then got up and made waffles with my new waffle maker that I got for 5 bucks!!! go consignment shops. :) It's acutally a nice one.

Cammy. my sister. She just turned 18. I don't like it. She just found out last night that she got accepted to BYU. She's very excited, although I almost cried because I REALLY wanted her to come down to SUU with me. She'll do well at BYU though. Congratulations!

Jenny. Almost done with drivers ed, but my mom isn't going to let her get her drivers license until the summer, when they can kick me off the insurance while I'm gone. haha

Nathan. He's now taller than me. It's sad. He's such a stud muffin. He broke his arm on the scouts Klondike hike, and still slept the night in the cold. haha that sucks. I think he just got his cast off though.

My roommate. and best friend. She's engaged. She's getting married the day after I leave for Nauvoo. It also happens to be my birthday. I guess that's appropriate since she met her husband through me. He's from Springville, and I've been in a bluegrass band with him since I was 14. They met at Lake Powell last September when we went down and met my friends there. I'm soooooo happy for her. BUT is sank in last week when I was sitting next to her on the couch. I started bawling, and telling her how much I'm going to miss her. I'm ridiculous. It's like she's dying but not. I love you Bri.

Dying. Speaking of dying. My first night back at work after Christmas break one of my residents died on me. My first death at work. My first post mortem care. That took me weeks to get over. I was so scared every time I went into a residents room I would find them dead. No good. I think about dying all the time because I'm around it so much from work. I guess I don't think about dying, just death in general. It's a strange thing. To have a body in front of you, but it has no spirit. Very strange.

Well, that was a positive note to end on. Well actually I have a few more minutes before I have to go to work so why not make this post a little bit longer. I have AMAZING friends. There's this one girl, we'll call her Geneil. :) She's incredible. I love her so much. wow. Once again I'm speechless, but this time it's a good thing. Shaye. I love you. Karyn. I already told you I love you. :) Bri. And everyone else that is good to me. I love you.

Although I'm barely alive, I'm still here. plugging away through everyday. My testimony of God seriously gets stronger everyday when I put up with people's crap. I love my Heavenly Father.

My cousin texted me this the other day. I like it.

"No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. it ministers to our education, to the develpment of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitute, and humility. All that we suffer and all tha twe endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our character, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitasble, more worthy to be called the children of God...and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we came here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in Heaven." -Orson F. Whitney

I love... my friends, the guitar, singing, hot showers, sleep (when I get to sleep), nice days when you think you might get to wear shorts, laughing hard, driving, the sunset over Leah hill, ice cream, pet stores, food, ice cream, music, my phone that never breaks even though I drop it 7000 times a day (knock on wood), sitting in a practice room talking instead of practicing, my car that runs even if I have to start it 3 times when it's cold, fiddling, hoodies, the cresent moon, blankets, pillows, Charlie Brown the musical, and ice cream. Oh, and late night trips to Wal Mart.

I'm just trying to hold on. The end.

Sorry for taking up your whole life, if you made it to the end of this.

Note to Self...

Don't put pretty cupcakes in the oven right after your roommate bakes her banana nut muffins at 450 degrees. Especially when it says to bake your cupcakes at 350 and you don't check to see what the oven is on. No good.

I have this goal to laugh at things I could possibly be upset about...I'm proud to say I laughed. Hey, 50% of them turned out, of course after I turned the oven down. See what you can laugh about today! :)

Sister Jones...

I got a call tonight. I have been called to serve in the Nauvoo, IL mission this summer as a Young Perfoming Missionary. I wanted to scream, and then to cry, but I didn't do either. After I hung up the phone, all I could think was, WOW. I am sooooooooooo lucky. Anyone of those other girls could have gone, but I'm one of the lucky ten. I am blessed. I am very excited for the amazing things I know I will experience this summer!

Nauvoo the Beautiful

Today I experienced something amazing. It was a good way to start off the year. My testimony has been strengthened once again.

I attended a day long audition in Salt Lake to serve as a performing missionary in Nauvoo for four months this summer. It's something I've always wanted to do, but I left the audition in a humbled condition, not caring whether I make it or not. At least that's what I'd like to think. A little background information. I auditioned last year. 400 kids send in DVD's of them singing, clogging, playing instruments etc. 40 made it to callbacks. I made it. 20 make it to Nauvoo. 10 girls. 10 boys. I didn't make it. I didn't understand why, but the Lord works in mysterious ways. I would not have my current job, or have made it through the semester financially if I had gone to Nauvoo last summer. I now see that, after the fact of course.

So anyway, this year I auditioned again. What the heck why not? Same process. I made it to callbacks. 40 of us. 10 girls and 10 boys will serve. As I was leaving the audition I thought how every single person who auditioned would be an incredible missionary. Everyone deserves to go, but they won't. The young performing missionaries were there from last year. They bore testimony of their love of Nauvoo, and what it meant to serve there. I was touched, as I was last year. The Nauvoo, IL mission president from a few years ago bore testimony of the special spirit that is in Nauvoo, and what a special place it is to the Lord. The spirit was there all day, even though we had a lot of fun, and quickly made new friends.

Nauvoo is a sacred place. I hope to be able to serve the Lord, and his children there, using my talents he has blessed me with.

I auditioned in front of a panel of judges today, but ultimately they are not the final judge. The Lord makes the final decision. He knows who is supposed to serve this summer. I am humbled by that. What is even more humbling is that I can be judged by whomever my whole life, but in the end it's only going to matter what the final judge says. My Father in Heaven. wow. That makes me never want to do anything bad/stupid again.

The church is true. Nothing really makes sense without it.

Happy New Year!