I have the most boring job ever.

But I'm getting used to it. For about three weeks now I have been working at Walmart as a people greeter. At first I thought I was going to die from boredom and sore feet but I have actually gotten used to the hours on my feet and not being busy at all. It is also good to be able to make some money and have something to take up my time. This may be the hardest summer ever so I can use all the distractions I can get. Hopefully I will be able to switch to a different position in a little while. I also hope to transfer to a Walmart in Washington. It will be nice to not have to look for a job when I move.

Gonzaga! oh yeah!

That's right, I'm putting off going into the real world for two more years because I am going to graduate school! I honestly never even thought I would go to college, so this soon approaching graduate school is kind of blowing my mind. I was accepted into programs at Montana State University and Gonzaga University, but I have decided to attend Gonzaga. For those of you that don't know, Gonzaga is a Catholic Private School located in Spokane Washington. I will be part of the community counseling program there and when I graduate will be able to have my dream job of being a counselor!!! Life is just never what you think it will be, but I'm pretty happy with the way things are going.

I just want to take a moment to thank a few people that have changed my life and made my higher education possible.

First there is Courtney. She has been my best friend for so long and being college roommates with her was such a dream. She always supports me and helps me with anything I ever need. Her parents have also been so wonderful to me and always supported me and helped me to attain my goals.

Next of course is Sam. We have been best friends since I was 16 years old. Sami without you I would have never gone to college. It just would not have happened. I owe you so much for changing my life in so many ways. Sam helped me go to community college and then made me fill out an application to BYU-Idaho. I have no idea what my life would be like without her influence, but I know it certainly would not be this good. Her family has also always been wonderful and taken me in and been so loving. I miss them dearly. (I don't have any recent pictures of Sam and I so I stole this one of her and her husband off her blog. lol.)

The final person I would like to thank is Elyssa. I met her at college and we have become the best of friends. The whole grad school process has been very scary and full of pressure, but it has been awesome to have someone to experience it with. I am so lucky because not only have I gotten to have many classes and fun memories with her at college, but I get to go to grad school with her too!!! It's going to be a blast!

New Car!

It has finally happened. I finally have a car again. It's a '98 Nissan Sentra and I just really love it! It is so nice to have a little more independence again. I no longer have to rely on all my friends to drive me around. (Even though it has been fun and I greatly appreciate you all!) Getting my car has come at the perfect time because now that I am graduated I can no longer live in student housing. This means that I live pretty far away from almost everyone I know. It made seeing anyone and doing anything more difficult especially since Griffin is no longer here to spoil me and drive me everywhere. It will also help with getting me a job and be essential for when I move out of Rexburg at the end of the summer.

Getting this car was made possible by the Kennedy family! They have adopted me into their family and are so amazing! I love them dearly and am so blessed to be a part of their lives. Here is a picture of the Kennedy's plus several adopted children like me out at their weekly dinner. :)

Avery Joy Christensen

I am so lucky to get to have two of my very best friends from back home here in Rexburg with me. I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing and wonderful it has been to have them here although that is soon about to change since we are all moving away. I have been blessed to be able to be there for my best friend Sam for the birth of her first two children!!! I feel so lucky that I could share in these important events in her life. On April 28th, she had her second daughter Avery Joy. As you can see, she is beautiful and healthy. I was able to spend most of the day at the hospital with Sam helping her out so that Sean could be with their first child Lexi and get some other things done. I thought I would throw in the picture from when I first held Lexi in the hospital. Man we are just all growing up, aren't we.

Griffin is just the best.

Maybe some of you don't know, but I have the best boyfriend ever. (And no Sam and Sean he is not imaginary, although I am sad that you guys never got to meet him.) His name is Griffin and we just recently celebrated our 3 month anniversary! He is the first boy I have dated for this long in a very long time. We spent pretty much my whole last semester together and it was such a blast. He is a wonderful person who is shy at first but so fun and funny once you get to know him. He is very chill and good at calming me down when I am freaking out about something. ha ha. We have tons in common and many of the same friends which is always nice. We just always have a good time when we are together. Unfortunately we do not get to be together anymore. This summer I am spending my last few months in Rexburg while Griff is working in Indianapolis. It is not easy to be away from him, but we are making it work. I've been looking at so many pictures today that it is making me miss him more than usual so I thought I would write a post about him. Here are some pictures of our times together. :)

This picture is one of my favorites because I just love our goofy faces. We did a puzzle together and everyone knows I LOVE puzzles so it was so fun!

We matched on accident one day. Clearly we are just meant to be. lol.

Griff had to put up with me being very boring and doing homework all the time. But he often just took a nap while waiting for me to finish. ha ha. He is the cutest.

This last picture is from a trip that we took to Oregon for Griffin's grandma's 90th birthday. This is us with his parents and two of his siblings. It was so great to get to meet his family!

Graduation, of course.

Can you believe I graduated from college!?! I can barely believe it myself so it's ok if you are having some trouble. I have been working on my higher education since 2004, and let me tell you it is about time I finished. ha ha. I started out taking night classes at a community college back home and that was a very slow process. I then came to Brigham Young University-Idaho in 2007. I worked hard while I was here and now have my bachelor's degree in Psychology. Also, I graduated cum laude!!! (which means that I graduated in the top 10% of my class). I did not even know until someone pointed it out to me on the program so that was pretty exciting.

I was lucky enough to have my family come to support me and see me graduate. This is a picture of me with my parents.

Here is a picture of everyone that traveled so far to be there for me! My parents and brother came from the Seattle area, my sister and her boyfriend came from Spokane, and my other sister came all the way from Arizona!

This is my whole family minus one brother. My little brother did not come. You were sorely missed Jere!

I also have the pleasure of still living by my freakin best friend Court! She of course came to support me as she always has for the years that we have been friends.

And then finally my wonderful boyfriend helped get my family there and watched me graduate even though he had so much going on with packing to leave and cleaning his apartment. He is the best and I was so glad he could be there.

Ok, life has been a little crazy, as always.

Wow the semester just flew by and big surprise I hardly wrote on my blog. But not to worry because I did document my life in some way. For a project for one of my classes, I took a picture of myself everyday! At first it was fun, but then it turned into somewhat of a burden. But in the end I'm glad that I did it because it really shows what I did in my last semester of school and all the fun I had. :) All of the pictures are in an album on facebook called Winter '10 Picture-a-day Project and here is a link so you can check it out.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=373857&id=516115656&l=27f53bfcaf

Here are a few of my favorite pictures. By the way it was really hard to chose favorites because there are so many good ones. lol.