SUMMER!!!

Oh the blessed days of summer have alas arrived:) I love everything about summer! BBQ's, swimming, tracy's house, WARMTH, late nights, being outside, boating, camping, you name it and I love it! Last Saturday one of my bff's Caitlin Maurer and I were finally able to go swim at Alta Canyon to celebrate summer! It was so fun, just like old times, accept for I just got so excited that I was swimming that I totally spaced putting on sunscreen and came home with one of the worst sunburns I've ever had haha! Evertime i move I just wince cause it hurst SO bad! I was texting Christian and he jokingly said, "I'm just gonna slap your sunburned leg the second I see you,".... my eyes literally started watering because even the thought of someone touching me made me cry.... lol! Moral of the story, WEAR SUNSCREEN!! Don't worry I've been wearing spf 50 everyday since then... no lie!! So besides that, this summer has been a blast so far! I've been to lots of BBQ's, a pool party at tracy's, night games, sunday walks barefoot:), picnics, and lots of fun dates with this guy :):) All I need to do is go camping and boating as much as possible and I'll be the happiest camper there ever was! Oh I wanna shoot the tube this summer too!! Who's with me?! I hope everyone else's summer is as fun as mine!

Side note: everyone and their DOG is either married, close to getting married, or dating someone they are going to marry.... I think I'm up to 15 friends getting married from now til september!!!!!

tagged!

A - Attached or Single: hmm... dating a few guys. Still deciding between them.
B - Best Friends: Tessa, lacey, tracy, megan, reagan, brayden, cody, ian, ben, jess, siblings, ldc family.... i have a lot of best friends. haha!
C - Cake or Pie: cake all the way!
D - Day of choice: Either Fridays or Sundays! I love Sundays.
E - Essential Item: chapstick, hair elastic, lotion.
F - Favorite Color: Purple! I love yellow too!
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Worms! The sour ones!
H- Hometown: Born in Sandy, currently living in Provo and Sandy for the summer.
I - Indulgence(s): Having time to sit and watch TV, chocolate, SHOES, late night drives.
K - Kids: 4-6 would be perfect for me, but I'll take whatever the Lord gives me!
L - Life is incomplete without: family, friends, laughing and adventures!
M - Marriage Date: It'll come when it's supposed to come.
N - Number of Siblings: baby of 4. 2 sisters 1 brother. I love them so much!
O - Oranges or Apples: Oranges! I've never really liked apples, but I'll eat them cause they're good for you.
P - Phobias or Fears: I am terrified of heights and disappointing people.
Q - Quotes:
"You must do everything you can to make your appearance more pleasing. But the minute you walk out the door, forget about yourself and start concentrating on others." -Susan W. Tanner


"In the moment of your strength, prepare for your weakness." -Brother Egget


R -Reason to smile: My family, my friends, laughing with my family and friends, listening to good music, awesome conversations, serving others, working hard all day everyday and going to bed feeling accomplished.
S - Season: Summer and fall! Plus the whole month of December!
T - Tag Friends: Lexie, Sierra, Nat, Lisa, Eva, Ameilia
U - Unknown fact about me: I am the biggest clutz you'll ever meet, I've never been stung by a bee and I am becoming more of a morning person the older I get... crazy, I know!!
V - Very favorite Store: Forever 21, DSW, Zumiez, Anthropologie and Charlotte Russe
W - Worst habit: I bite my nails.
X - X-ray or Ultrasound: I have had so many x-rays it's ridiculous!! (see letter U....)
Y - Your favorite food: Thai food and sushi!!
Z- Zodiac: Virgo

Happy birthday Tessa Camille!!

Meet my best friend, TESSA CAMILLE SOUTER!!!! She turned the ripe age of 20 on Sunday.. poor girl spent the whole day traveling back from Florida. She was competing with the Cougarettes at the National Dance Championship and.... THEY WON!!!! They are now 8 time national champions!!!! How cool is that?! I could not be more proud of her because they worked SO hard to deserve this win. There were several days when she would come home from practice in tears because it was so hard. So proud of her!
Where do I begin with this one..... Tess and I have been best friends for 15 years....!!! I am convinced that we were friends much longer before that though:) Tess is everything and more I could've ever hoped and prayed for in a best friend. Aside from my MOm and sisters, Tessa has been the biggest influence on me in this life.
Tess looks like barbie. Literally, I hear that at least once a day! I say this often, but I truly have the most gorgeous friends. Any guy would be lucky to have them! You look at Tessa and you think she is going to be stuck up and pretty bratty. But if you spend one second with her, you quickly realize that she is the complete opposite. She is by far the most sincere, down-to-earth, self-LESS, giving, mature, smart, sweetest girl you will ever meet. Everyone who meets her falls in love with her instantly because her goodness and light of Christ shines so bright that people are naturally drawn to her. They love her because she is just such a good person. She care about people more than herself. She truly would drop anything for anyone and is willing to sacrifice so much for the people she loves. She's been at everyone of my choir concerts, recitals, plays and performances since we were kids! I know I can always count on her to be there on the front row, trying to get me to crack a smile :)
Tess and I always joke about this that we feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to talk about all the things we want to talk about. Really though, if the both of us have a free day, we spend the whole day talking about anything and everything you can think of. I love it! Don't take this the wrong way, but the kind of natural friendship that we have and the ability we have to talk about anything and everything is what I'm hoping my future husband and I have. The day I find a guy I can talk to like I talk to Tessa is the day I've found my match, because that is a very important quality I need in a guy! I trust Tessa with my life. I tell her things that I don't tell anyone else. Things that are so personal and private to me, I can tell her because I know that not only can I trust her with what I'm telling her, I know that she will value and respect what I'm telling her. I never have to worry that I'm "casting my pearals before the swine," with Tessa, because I know that she would never disrespect me or anyone for that matter. Tessa, I just want you to know that that is one of my top 3 favorite things about you. You have no idea what a blessing it is to have someone that I know I can always tell ANYTHING to. I can never thank you enough for always being there for me. Always, consistantly, anytime day or night you are always there. Thank you so much Tessa.
She was by my side as my testimony was blossoming and helped me get my testimony to the place where it's at today. She started dragging me to the Temple with her every single week starting when we were 15 and has helped my love of the Temple grow. The Temple is a staple in our friendship and the Temple has strengthened our friendship over the years because we both continue to go every single week. She has taught me that the more you sacrifice for the Lord, the more He will sacrifice for you. She is the greatest example of sacrificing for the Lord. She has taught me how to prioritize my life. She's taught me what is most important in life and to go after what I love the most. She's taught me how to balance my time and work hard for the things I want. She's taught me to only surround myself with uplifting music, tv, media, friends and people in general. She has taught me to choose the right always. She not only makes it easy for me to live the Gospel, she makes me WANT to live the Gospel to it's very fullest everyday! She was a huge part in me realizing that living the Gospel is the perfect way to happiness, the only way to happiness. She never lets me settle for anything less. If she feels that I'm lacking in any area of my life, she will call me out on it, tell me to buck up and work harder on improving that area of my life. She is my constant motivation to be the best person I can be. She is such a huge boost to my confidence. She openly compliments people so sincerely and her compliments stay with you forever and truly build your confidence. But when she compliments you, she never expects anything back in return. Have I mentioned that she is one of the most humble people i know? I always am learning from her natural humility.
I cannot tell you how hard Tessa makes me laugh! The hardest times I have ever laughed in my life have been with her! To name a few: last year while living in Raintree, Tessa, Tracy and myself were all getting ready for bed one night. We were all in the bathroom and looked something like this; tracy's hair halfway blow-dryed while she was wearing no makeup with her retainers in...I was wearing questionable PJ'S while I also had zero makeup on with a pore strip on my nose while I was flossing my teeth... and Tessa was also wearing little PJ'S also no makeup with retainers in while she was putting curlers in her hair! It was almost midnight when all the sudden we hear a knock on the door... we heard our roomate answer the door and we heard a guys voice asking for us.... we all paused for a second then Tess and I DOVE into the shower, while I am drooling/ choking cause I was brushing my teeth so I was drooling into the tub while Tessa starts ripping her curlers out and starts throwing them everywhere... Another one of my very favorites was one night earlier this year we had all just gotten ready for bed and were going to bed. I was the last one up which is odd cause normally I'm the first one asleep. Anyways I was in the bathroom then I walked through the apartment, locked the door, turned off the lights and went into my room. Lacey was gone that night so I was alone in my room so I turned on my lamp, turned off the light, closed the door behind me and walked to my bed. As I started to pull back the covers, I felt like I wasn't alone anymore.. then suddenly Tessa grabs my ankles and screams!! YOu know those old cartoon movies when the dog sneaks up on the cat and scares him and the cat flies up to the ceiling? That was me.... I've heard from Tess that my scream was literally the definition of bloody murder! I ran out the door and collapsed flat on the floor while I started crying/laughing cause I was SO scared while Tessa proceeded to PEE her pants from laughing so hard!!!..... I'm laughing out loud just thinking about it! I cannont begin to tell you how many stories, inside jokes, crazy moments and mischevious adventures we have accumilated over the last 15 years. I could write a book just on our funny moments alone! Those memories I have with her are my most prized possessions. One of my favorite things in the whole world is sitting on the couch with Tess after a long day and watching America's Funniest Home Videos and laughing til we pee our pants!! Gosh, my life is just too good to be true.
In all honesty I feel completely undeserving of having a best friend like Tessa. She motivates me and makes me want to be the best person I can be. There's not much more I can say about Tessa cause she already knows it. But just incase she's forgotten, I love you more than I could ever say Tess. You cease to amaze me. You are my rock, my partner in crime and the biggest blessing to me. I call a duplex with our families in Heaven:)
"In Heaven we were sisters... but God wouldn't do that to one mother."
I love you poodah boodah winkle:)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
XOXOXO
love Allie

CRAZY.

This is me ALL the time.
I've never been so busy, so stressed and so tired.
School everyday including saturdays. WORD TO THE WISE: Never EVER take a Saturday morning class.... EVER!! Worst mistake I've made this semester.Work. Finals in 2 weeks. I've written 4 papers this week and have 2 more due tomorrow morning. Not to mention the 6 others I have due before the 26th. Plus the 5 exams I have to take in 2 weeks. Plus trying to find a second job for the summer. Plus trying to sell my contract. And then there's my choir schedule... literally it sucks up all of my time. But I love it so so so so much and couldn't be happier with it! I'm sure you're all in the same boat with me right now. We've just gotta take it one day at a time or we WILL go crazy. One thing that is keeping me going: SUMMER.

POST ON CONFERENCE COMING SOON!!!

The sun'll come out TOMORROW!!

I will be here in 24 hours.....

I feel like a 5 year old girl on Christmas Eve I'm SO EXCITED!!!!!

You best believe I'm bringing my FANNY PACK to Disneyland....

I believe

This semester I'm taking Ethics&Values, which is basically an advanced philosophy class and so far it has been very difficult academically and spiritually. My testimony has been strenghtened immensley in the last couple months because of that class. My professor was born&raised in Utah as LDS..... now he is athiest. I guess the only way I can understand that he's athiest now is if he never really believed in the first place. But everytime we talk about God, which is almost everyday, it almost brings me to tears. It hurts my heart so much to hear that someone can actually live their life so selfishly to not believe in anything greater than themselves. It hurts my heart so much to not believe that you have a Heavenly Father who knows you, cares about you and loves you more than you could fathom. Everytime he says something negative about God or religion, I just want to stand up and say, "I believe. I KNOW that there is a God. He lives and He loves me and even you when you are choosing not to love Him. He is my light, my life and my Savior. I believe in Him!" I have been more greatful than ever before for my missionaries out serving right now because they are in the field searching for those who have yet to see the light or who choose to turn away from the light. I am so greatful for them and their decisions to dedicate their lives right now to finding His lost children who deserve to have Christ in their lives! I am more greatful now more than ever for the promise I made myself a long time ago to dedicate my life to Him. To make every thought, action, habbit and choice based off of my love for Him. And I'm so greatful for the "re-charges," I get of that decision on a daily basis. I have the incredible opportunity to sing in the Saturday afternoon session of April's General Conference this year (I know, right?!!? Oh, I'll be standing on the very front row, furthest left corner FYI!) and just last week at practice I got another "re-charge," of this covenant I made with Him. One of the songs we're singing is "I Feel My Savior's Love." This song is the most simple and beautiful depiction of what a true testimony should be like. Some of the lines from the song are, "I feel my Savior's in all the world around me, His Spirit warms my sould in everything I see. He knows I will follow Him, give all my life to Him. I feel my Savior's love, the love He freely gives me..... I feel my Savior's love and know that He will bless me. I offer Him my heart, my shepherd He will be. He knows I will follow Him, give all my life to Him. I feel my Savior's love, the love He freely gives me." It moved me to tears as we were singing this because I have sang this song a million times but it's beautiful simplicity has never struck me so profoundly before. I felt re-juvenated and wanting to be better and that fire still has not burned down! Everytime I hear this song now, I get chills and feel that same fire of humility and truth urging me and pushing me to be better! Do more for Him and strive for perfecting myself because that is what He deserves.

I offer Him my heart, My Shepherd He will be. He knows I will follow Him, give all my life to Him.

Obsessed & Craving

I don't know if it was just the weather today, but I am CRAVING summer! I cannot wait for camping, boating, WARMTH, warm summer nights, BBQ's, my friends to start coming home, swimming and just the idea of SUMMER!! 9 weeks til the semester is over.... I can do it!

And for those who don't already know, I'm slightly OBSESSED with the band SNOW PATROL.... and by slightly I mean majorly. I've been to 2 of their concerts so far, and I've been very front row dead center at both and I WILL attend every one of their concerts until I die or they stop playing! One of my biggest goals is to go to Ireland to see them play in their hometown cause that's where they're from. Crazy? Maybe :) Just listen for yourself and you can also know why I am obsessed and love going to their concerts! click here