Wednesday, December 23, 2015

big life update pt. 2

Part two of my ain't-nobody-got-time-for-blogging-during-finals-update. I consider it a huge blessing that December brings Christmas along with finals. I don't know how I'd be able to handle the stress of the end of the semester if I didn't have holiday parties or holly-jolly christmas music to get me through the days. Sure, Angela and I started listening to Christmas music in late September, but that's besides the point. 

here are photos of everything else that was going on in my life besides finals week. 
^^We had a ward Christmas party featuring a live Nativity scene.

^^L.C. and I went to the Lower Lights Christmas concert in SLC! We had a fair share of obstacles getting there (1. An Econ assignment I had to turn in right before we left, 2. HORRIBLE traffic caused by an accident, 3. Pizzeria limone was 20min behind in their pizza orders, 4. Parking at the U was a nightmare). We literally sat dawn right as the first song was ending, but oh my word, what an AMAZING concert!
^^Kyra and I matched one day without even realizing it.
^^last FHE of the semester. 
^^I made a huge bowl of Mexican Street corn for an MPA gathering because at our last gathering it ran out early on in the festivities.
^^MPA friends (+Kyra)
^^The end of the semester means that some people will be moving out of our ward. There are some girls getting married, some going on missions, and some moving home. :( 
It was Bishop Cardullo's birthday on the 12th. To celebrate, we got the whole ward in on a big surprise. We scheduled ward prayer an hour earlier and carpooled over to Bishop's house. The whole ward met up on his lawn and sang "Tanti Auguri a te" (Happy Birthday in Italian) and then celebrated with cupcakes and this amazing pizza-bread-type thing Sis Cardullo makes. 

Bishop is known for his über colorful and design friendly socks, and so I made a sock birthday cake. Unfortunately, the birthday cake was ruined on the ride over. It was still delicious though! 
^^Vescovo Cardullo
^^Everyone wore their best Cardullo-esque socks to celebrate. 
^^No idea what's going on here...

^^This is the scene I walked out to after studying in the law library one day till 1am!

& then, there was Angela's wedding. Angela was married in Twin Falls, ID and my trip up there marked the very first time I'd ever set my feet on Idaho soil. Turns out, Idaho looks a lot like northern Utah! I was so happy to have been at the wedding. Angela made for a beautiful bride. There was such a lovely feeling in the air as she and Erik formed their new family. 
Even though I was sad to lose Angela as a roommate, I was so happy to be with her as she made such an important step for eternity!

Sunday, December 20, 2015

a big life update pt.1

No matter how many times I go through it (this semester marked 11!) the end of the semester + finals week is always super intense. With the end of the semester comes a lack of blog posts. Usually, I'm not one for playing catch up, but there were so many good memories that happened—I can't help but document them here. 
^^(left) I had Bruges for brunch one day with Dre! How is it that somehow I see this girl more when she's married than when she was single? :) (right) Angela had a bridal shower at Gloria's little Italy and we were treated to Gelato!

We had a combined RS activity where we had a panel (+pie) on relationships/intimacy with the wives of our bishopric. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of wisdom these women possess.
^^Took our FHE family Christmas photo at the Cardullo's home. 
^^Alyssa and Ashley graduated this semester and put on a beautiful art show together at the HFAC. 
^^(left)McCall & I discovered very early in the semester that we had the same Forever21 shirt from about 5 years ago! I decided to donate my shirt, but before I did, McCall and I planned to be twins at church. :) (right) I made the thankful wall in Apt 4! Um, never have I had so many nicknames in my life: floren, flo, l. flo, flo rida, lo just to name a few...
^^We had an MPA Christmas Party & surprise, turns out Santa is Hawaiian!
^^Roommates at Angela's bridal shower. I love that girl more than words!
^^I had back to back bridal showers on the same day and celebrated with Hna Morales too! My favorite moment from Hna Morales' bridal shower was when she had to answer who her fiancé's role model was. Her response? "It better be Jesus!" :)
pt. 2 coming soon!

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

thanksgiving 2015

The second week of December isn't that late for a Thanksgiving update, right? I got to go home for Thanksgiving, but the plans didn't quite turn out the way I had thought. There was a planned San Diego trip at one point, but we ultimately decided against it. We ended up spending Thanksgiving in a hospital in Newport Beach with my Uncle Job. We had cafeteria-esque Thanksgiving dinner, but it was complementary, so there's that! 

Even though Thanksgiving didn't quite turn out as planned, I still felt so happy throughout the break. It was an all around good visit home. Lately, I've been toying with the idea of going home for spring and summer, and I was feeling a little bit apprehensive about it. This trip though, filled me with a sense of peace. I loved spending time with my family and felt that if my spring/summer plans turned out, then going home would be a great decision. 

For family home evening, we prepared a package for Devin. We thought a red and green Christmas package would be too boring. Since Devin won't be here to see the new Star Wars film, we went on a Star Wars shopping spree in Target and bought everything we could find that had any kind of Star Wars character-figure-logo on it. 
We still stuck to our Turkey Trot tradition and ran the Long Beach turkey trot. I had forgotten how beautiful it is to run on the beach. 
^^Thanksgiving at the hospital
^^Just a little pallet decor that my dad made for Thanksgiving.