GO SHUM!

This post is dedicated to the Shumway Family. I am so thankful for them. I can never repay or every forget the Christlike service they provided for me. I love them like my family and will always consider them that way. We had some great times and a lot of laughs.

We had some friends come and stay with us while I stayed with the Shumways. Kyall is from Australia and Glenn is from England. They stayed for 2 and a 1/2 weeks on holiday.

They were fun to have around and invited me to come with them one night to an arcade called Nickel City. SO much fun but Kyall (who I had an alliance with) got most of the tickets for our team. I thought all of the prizes looked like junk so I let him pick for me. He chose a potato gun. I had never done a potato gun before and wasn't sure how to work it so this is what happened. (This is for YOU Diane!)

Tanner was kind enough to show me the way it's supposed to work:

BHAHAHAHAHA! Yeah...I learned a lot.

Speaking of Tanner. We had a lot of fun together. We HAD fun but we also MADE fun. It was a love/tease relationship. :) We'd...ehem...help entertain each other during church, watched Jim Gaffigan together (BACON!), and he'd school me on the Wii. He'd always beat me at things because he can't take losing which is good since he plays sports. Either way we had fun.

That pretty much sums us up! OH except this one other picture. Glenn's sister came from England as well, for thanksgiving. We went out to dinner and this just happened. :)

He was so embarrassed. Oh I love that kid. 

Loren and Diane were great listeners. I'm sure Loren got the idea of what it would be like to have a daughter. 

Loren or Diane: "How was school?" 

Me: "OH my gosh...blah blah blah! etc." 

But they'd smile and nod. :) They'd also give good advice. I love that while they considered me their daughter...they also treated me like a friend. I could talk to them about anything. 

I loved going to football games and other family outings with them. It was such a blast! 

My love and gratitude can not be more expressed. Thank you a million times over. :) 

Love,

Arica Page

(Sister Page)

Besties & Thanksgiving Plans

First WATCH this video...it's so funny. I was reminded of it I as wrote my post title!



I guess I need to let myself be heard after my long absence. :) Today I officially signed the last document to finish my student teaching! I received my summative evaluation from my cooperating teacher and my supervisor...on a scale from 1-4 I was given all 4s on my performance! WOOT! I feel like I worked really hard and that it paid off.

Thanksgiving is going to be nontraditional for me this year. I have been spending all of my thanksgivings (mission aside) at the Hegerhorst farm. Even when my friend Emily was on her mission I still went over. It has become home away from home! So I planned on going there the whole time I was living here. Alas, it cannot happen. I am driving back to North Carolina the day after the big Turkey Day! Ashleigh my older sister, is coming out to drive with me. She has a small window of opportunity to do this because of school. SO we looked at tickets and it looks like TG is the best day to fly out on. She'll come in around 2:30 and spend the rest of Thanksgiving with us, then we'll drive in the morning. No farm this year. :(...   It is sad because I really do love that family away from family. While I feel bad about that I still I can't begin to tell you how excited I am for thanksgiving because....three of my besties are coming down from Rexburg! Arin, Kristin, and Valerie! They will be here Wednesday! Plus, a Shumway thanksgiving has GOT to be fun in and of it's self.

Anyways, my besties and I just skyped tonight because we can hardly wait to hang out again. I truly love skype! I used to be against it because I figure why not just talk on the phone but my heart was softened. You can talk to more people on skype and feel like you're in the room with them. I love it. Still not the same as being there but 2nd best.

I feel so accomplished. I'm actually graduating and moving on with my life. It's an interesting feeling but I'm excited for it. Now all I need to do is pack. I want that to be done by itself. I hope I can fit everything in my car....I'll be sure to document the trip home. Ashleigh and I are going to have a blast! I'm making cds, collecting good books, and getting my camera ready! This trip should go down in HISSStory.

Name the Movie Quote of the Week:
"Not her and I "us"....YOU and ME "us"!"

Happiness Runs,
Arica

I'm Back!

So I went on a hiatus from blogging...as you can tell! I tried out a new website that I still love but it wasn't meeting my needs and I found so many cool new things to do on blogger so here I go again.

I'll skip the nitty gritty of everything and get onto more general things. I have "walked" for graduation but I officially graduate with my degree in the next couple of weeks. I've been doing my student teaching in Kearns, Utah while living with some mission friends in Lehi. I feel this was the perfect place for me to live! I became closer to a family I didn't get to see much on my mission but wished I could have, I was half way between Salt Lake and Provo and I have friends in both, AND I was able to see a lot of old investigators or recent converts while here. It's been an amazing ride.

It's interesting since I have been in practicums before where I'm in the school setting, something I've come to learn is that there are no two like experiences. No matter if you've done something before it's always going to be different. I learned you need a learning curve with anything you begin. I don't think I accounted for that and I got hit in the face with a big slap of humility. It was good for me to realize my weaknesses and move on and upward. I especially have enjoyed my time in these classrooms. I've fallen in love with my students and I am sad to leave them and not know how they're progressing and the funny/cute comments they make. They truly made my day and I know they are the reason I did this major.

I've had many adventures while I've been here but I'll sum them up with some pictures:

I learned how to shoe a horse and was taught the ropes on the basics of each part of shoeing. It was so nice of Loren to let me come with him and boys. It was before the first day of school and I didn't have a care in the world! (except maybe that the horse would poop on me...) It is hard work and I admire Loren for what he does all day.

I saw my companion Amber Mosley! It was a God send for her to be here the time I was here and that we got to hang out as friends not just companions. Although we called each other by our last names for a while. She is one of my best friends and we hung out for the last time last night. She asked, "When will I see you again?" I couldn't answer. I don't know. BUT it will happen. There are so many people I love and so many great memories to be had I will make an effort to visit people. Traveling is going to be a hobby of mine. :)

I went to Rexburg on two occasions to visit my sister one time and to visit the crazy nuts you see to the left. Kristin and Valerie are two my best friends! It's amazing how two people come into your life in two very different ways and yet we are all such good friends. :) I did miss being so close to them and knowing what was going on every day BUT it's made our friendship stronger and we have definitely grown closer in the absence.

I was able to go out with the sister missionaries while I was here. It was hard to schedule a time we could get together but we finally did it and I LOVE them. They are in a bilingual area and it furthers my future goal of learning spanish. :) It will come one day but I'm just not in a place to start studying it. Either way they are way fun girls and I wish them the best. They work hard but they definitely have fun too! :)

There were many more stories I can tell and if I think of them I'll be sure to update this. :) There are a lot of Shumway stories I could have told too but there aren't a lot of pictures to go with them, I'm not sure why but we didn't take many. I will during Thanksgiving and make a separate post all about them because they deserve it. Their generosity has been so Christ-like and I will forever be thankful for them. Until next time...hopefully I'll be better about updating this, we'll see.

Happiness Runs,

Arica Page