TBTBTBTBTBTBTB

Everytime I login to "mybyui" student page, I am rudely interrupted and informed with a ginormous blaring sign that says something along the lines of: 

Dear Noelle, 

The very second you so much as step foot in Rexburg, you had better beeline your little patootie over to the Health Center for a TB test. This is due to the fact that you left the continent and exposed yourself to all sorts of foreign diseases.

I get light-headed even just thinking about TB tests. :(

As terribly unhappy as I am about this…. You were worth it Peru!

After a brisk morning run to Llancanora waterfalls

 So worth it.

Love, Noelle
  

Reality Check

So the other night I went to the movies. Since it was an almost 3 hour long movie, and because I have way too strong a relationship with my waterbottle... I knew that I needed to use the bathroom before I permanently took my seat for the movie.

So I use the bathroom, and I go to put my hands under the faucet to wash my hands.. and guess what happened!?!??!

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

What the!? Do you mean to tell me that there was still a public bathroom on this earth that didn't have automatic sinks??

"How very peculiar", I thought to myself. So I turned on the faucet and lo and behold, water came out and I rinsed my hands.

Forgetting the little lesson I had learned not even two seconds earlier, I placed my palm under the soap dispenser, expecting a perfectly measured little squirt of foam soap to land delicately into my hand.

Nothing.

I won't even begin to explain how silly I felt upon realizing that I also had to pull the little lever up and down and up and down if I wanted to have paper towels to dry my hands.

Now, please don't think me lazy or high maitenence, I was perfectly fine with performing these teeny, tiny unsanitary tasks that are usually automated at public restrooms, I was just taken off guard!

And then I remembered...

Just over three months ago, I was on a floating island in Puno, Peru. Here on this little island there was one bathroom. When I say bathroom, I mean there were makeshift walls surrounding an area smaller than your average porter potty, where visitors stood in line to use it one at a time. After each use, a young Peruvian boy would take a bucket of water and pour it down the "toilet" to clear it out for the next user.

No flushing, so seats, no sinks, and don't even think about asking for soap.

I couldn't find a picture of the aforementioned bathroom, but it was on a floating island like this one.

That was the norm though! When we went to Mauchu Piccu we had to pay one sol for just a few squares of toilet paper. Most just went without.  I can probably count the number of times I used a real (by low, low American standards) bathroom in Peru.

And here I was in the movie theater shocked that everything wasn't automatic?!

Oh man, it was nice to have that little reality check.

How grateful I am for American bathrooms!

Love, Noelle

Peru-nions

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore this girl?

Oh annnd don't even get me started on this gorgeous girl.

Blog, meet two of the ladies who have changed my life. Brittany Nicole Meyer and Abigail Anna Tucker.

I finally got to see them again after one whole month without them. We talked, laughed, reminisced, and got close to tears in Relief Society as Brit bore her testimony of the power of prayer and how we relied on it just about every second of every day in Peru. Or as I hugged Abi goodbye  with no promise of seeing her anytime soon.

But we did enjoy ourselves, we did. I made plans to rollerblade to the park with Abi, so as I was walking over to Clark apartments to meet her there to pick up our blades , I passed by a group of students who had just gotten back from backpacking… and then I spotted it. The green beanie and greyish jacket that had wandered the streets of Peru many of times. There was Brittany, right in the Stadium parking lot. She didn't see me so I snuck up on her and oh was she surprised to see me! Gosh I loved it. She had some studying to do and some showering to attend to, so I carried on with my venture to Clark to reunite with Abigail. And there she was, waiting for me with open arms. So I got to see them both  that day and catch up just a bit.

After one month back in the states

Sunday, things got good. We made plans to all attend Brittany's ward together. (Which just so happened to be my old ward, imagine my delight!  I had no idea and loooved being able to see so many people that I knew and loved!) After attending our meetings together for 3 straight months in Peru, it was magical to attend our meetings together for the first time in English! So great.

Side note that I don't want to forget but I'm not sure if it's appropriate to put on a blog: The sacrament was passed to me and I reached for a cup, but switched to a different one because I noticed floaties in the first cup. I then passed the tray to Brittany who unknowingly went straight for the floatie cup. By the time she had it in her hand and out of the tray… she noticed the floaties, but there was no turning back. So she looked at it good and hard… and then  drank it, floaties and all.  I turned to her and whispered "Boy Scout" (Only 3 of you reading this will get that.) But we just about died. So funny. But don't worry, we laughed about it afterwards, we tried very hard to be reverent at the time of the hilarity  :)

We then enjoyed a lovely Sunday School lesson together and then made our way to Relief Society where I was reunited with some love button friends that I just adore.  Next came our true blue Peru-nion. We went up to a grassy spot at the temple (surrounded by 100's of swarming bee's… esta bien!" and ate ourselves a little picnic with a few of our Peruvian favorites. We had wraps, cancha (peruvian… kind of popcorn stuff), apple slices and Peruvian "Mint Casino" cookies. Twas a feast fit for Las Tres Gringas.

Unfortunately, after just one month our chaco lines are fading fast! But maybe that's a good thing :)

Quotes to remember:
"Did you see that guy milking his baby?"

" I know… I just want to find a guy who's not attracted to girls like me.." Oh goodness.

Words cannot express how grateful I am to have these two amazing women in my life.

 When Abigail and I reunited, Hank said, "Aren't you guys sick of each other?  You just spent 3 whole months completely together" Our answer was a resounding NO!  Thank goodness because I plan on having these two as best friends for many, many years to come.

I Do Hard Things So That I Can.... Do Hard Things

Today, a girl in relief society said that.

And it stuck.

It's so true isn't it?

Remember my first week in Peru? It was HARD.

I was sick the entire time. I was exhausted. We had black mold carpeting our ceiling. I couldn't understand anyone. I shivered myself to sleep every night and woke up at least 6 or 7 times each night out of discomfort, frozen-ness or bugs biting me. We didn't know where or how to buy food. We didn't have a refrigerator or carpet. We didn't have washers or dryers. We didn't have hot water. We didn't have an oven. We didn't have family close by. Most of the days we didn't have running water or electricity. Gosh. It was hard.

At the end of that first week, I told my parents that I was booking my first flight out of there because this was just too hard.

Well, I stayed. And it was still hard, but it got easier. We learned to do with out and make do with what we had. We learned to love our living conditions and those around us. And after a HARD first week, I had three of the best months of my life.

That really hard first week and those challenging three months have prepared me for this next chapter of my life.

See if you can find the parallels.

I know nobody in Riverton, thus I was searching anxiously for a place to stay. Last minute, I found a family who was renting a room out of their basement. So without any further questions, I loaded up and drove to Riverton to move in.

I moved in and was put in a room in the basement...with carpet!! Looking good so far right? I have a place to live! Well not really. Because they weren't planning on having somebody move in so soon, so they weren't really ready for me.

I had no refrigerator to put my food. No oven or stove to cook my food. No sink to rinse my vegetables or wash my dishes. No counters to prepare my food on. No toaster, microwave, toaster oven etc. Essentially no kitchen. I also had NO money. I spent every last penny in Peru and couldn't even afford to pay the $20 bucks a month they were asking to use the laundry room. So I was without a washer and a dryer as well.

But guess what? This was nooo big deal to me! My mom  kind of wanted me to move out of there asap and find something a little bit more suited to my needs, or at least the needs of a normal person... but I had spent the last three months living in such uncomfortable circumstances that a few weeks with out any means to keep/cook/wash/prepare my grub seemed like cake. And it was!  Eventually, the so called "necessities" started popping up, a fridge here, hot plate there. I'm still without a sink or running water, but hellooo that's what the hose outside is for right?

I did those "hard" months in Peru, so that I could do these "hard" weeks in Riverton. So grateful for that prep.

Here's another one.

Remember how we shipped ourselves off to a foreign country where we did not speak the language? Yeah I do. Ohh how my head would ache as I'd desperately try and understand what these people were desperately trying to communicate to me. It expended my brain power like none other I tell you.

Well guess what. I just started a job in a building of 1300 people who speak a completely foreign language. Servers, Oracle, Beach Picture Apps, Remedy,Configuration Items... and don't even get me started on the acronyms! SM, DTE, NPS, EIM, KPI, DSA, CAB, COB, EDDI. Seriously, I almost wish that they were speaking Spanish.

Lesson Number One in ICS lingo

It's hard. But I was totally prepared for it by my time in Peru. I'm used to that "Oh my gosh, they're saying something important, and I'm trying really hard to understand it.. but I'm totally lost" feeling, and I know that I'm a fast learner and that I'll catch on to the language in time.

So everyday as a new "hard" thing comes up...(i.e. My car is a goner so now I'm living and working in this brand new city...with my two feet as my only means of transportation..) I know that I'm doing them in preparation for... more hard things. You can look at that as a downer... my whole life is and forever will be hard, or you can look on the bright side. Either way, the hard times keep on comin'.

So perhaps the fact that I have to wake up an hour and a half earlier than usual so that I can walk to work in the chilly mornings (tomorrow it's supposed to rain... not sure how that'll work out), is simply preparation for another hard time coming.  I'll be ready for it.

Love, Noelle

Why Hello Reality, Nice of You to Finally Join Us

One week! One week, one week one week!
Or.. as I like to say, " Una semana, una semana, una semana!"

In una semana I will be on a plane flying from Vegas to Miami anxiously awaiting my reunion with Abigail and Brittany where we will then leave the continent and arrive in South America all together (thank goodness for that).

My passport is here. The shots have been injected (didn't even hurt really, huzzah!) and my bags have been packed for days. Reality is just barely beginning to set in... but only a teensy, tiny bit. It's still kind of surreal.

For instance. I can't believe that BYU-I school starts today! Woah! Good luck to all of you!
Bittersweet.

Also, I have a great big fatty announcement! Are you ready for this?

After much contemplation and internal debate, I have decided to start a brand new blog dedicated to my time in Peru.  You can find a link to it here. Or if you look to the left side bar portion of my blog you will find a permalink to my new Peruvian blog. Simply click on the picture that looks like this:

If you'd like to follow our adventures, feel free to do so! Although I will probably set that blog to private (for safety reasons) for the duration of our time in Peru. But you're more than welcome to follow it, so if you'd like, simply click on the orange button at the top that says follow and you will become one of my readers and have full access to the blog.

As for this "Love, Noelle" Blog of mine.... I believe that I will still update it on occasion. Because I'll still be thinking and remembering and planning and that sort of stuff goes here. So keep an eye on both!

Until then, hasta luego!

Love, Noelle

We Three... White Girls

I had the pleasure of spending today with my dear grandparents at their home in St. George.

 Random Inapplicable Side Note That I Don't Want to Forget:  
My grandpa told us his and my grandma's love story... SO CUTE! 
Get this: Jan 1957-First Date, Feb 1957-Engaged, May 1957-Married! 
55 years, 4 missions and 18 grandchildren later, they are still in love and as adorable and wonderful as ever! But seriously, engaged after two weeks of dating??? Come on now!

Anyways....Lucky for me, their Christmas decorations were still up and I got to mosey around the house checking out their dozens of amazing Nativity scenes. My grandparents served in Peru and have several Peruvian-made nativities. They now mean a bit more to me than before and I'm sure that they'll mean even more to me when I see them next year after having spent 3 months amongst the Peruvian people.

As I was perusing through the nativities I found one that I just fell in love with. Particularly the three wise men who came bearing gifts to the sweet Peruvian baby Jesus.

 

Now, don't think me sacrilegious, but upon seeing this, I couldn't help but compare it to Abigail, Brittany and I bearing our gifts to the sweet Peruvian children in Cajamarca.

Can't cha see the resemblance??

 Abigail, Brittany and I have gotten to work on planning, preparing and purchasing things for our upcoming adventure to Peru. We've been gathering up books, school supplies, games, crafts, hygienic supplies ... Anything that we can get our hands on to help the children that we'll be meeting in TWO WEEKS. I feel like with every purchase or every plan made on behalf of these kids, I just love them more and more. I can't wait to meet them and truly fall in love with them.

I know what you're thinking.. " But you don't speak Spanish you crazy girl!!" I know, I know, but I truly don't care. Language and cultural barriers or not, I'm going to love these kids... and learn the language in the meantime.

Oooo I'm just so excited to go and can't believe that it's going to be here before I know it!

I loved this Peruvian Shepherd. We're going to reenact this picture the moment we find a sheep :) k ladies?

Also, in case you were curious, we will not have warm water or a stove in the place we're staying, but we will so have WiFi! So not to worry, blog updates on what we're up to will be posted here straight from Peru! Wahooo! 

   Love, Noelle

"Home Means.... Nevada?"

A: Rexburg, Idaho
Sept 2009-Dec 2011

B: Overton, NV
Dec 1990-Sept 2009

C: Cajamarca, Peru
Jan 2012-April 2012

D: Riverton, Utah
April 2012-August 2012

Here's my question: How long do you have to live in one spot before it becomes home??  When I say, "I'm going home." Where will that mean??

Gosh I feel like I'm having a bit of an identity crisis:)


P.S. That little dotted line on the left (aka: the equator), I'm totally stoked to be crossing over that bad boy!





 Also, I thought I'd share with you a bit of my flight plans. I fly out of Las Vegas at 6am on January 11th. I will fly to Miami and meet up there with Brittany and Abigail. Oh I can't even imagine how great that reunion will be!!!

At 4:30pm our plane will depart from Miami and we will be Lima bound. We'll arrive in Peru at approx 10:05pm.

Please direct your eyes to the visual on the right. See that little red square with the 1 in it??? That my friends is where I will be sitting for the entire flight to Peru. I'm already rather found of that little seat. 36J! A window seat no less. I'm sorely hoping that Brittany and Abigail's seats are close by 36J. And I also hope we meet some fantastic people on our flight over. I'm sure we will.

Also, upon writing Abigail and Brittany's names so much, it made me wish that my name started with a C. ABC ya know? Then I relaized that my middle name starts with a C (Celeste) so I could go by that for the three months that I'm in Peru!!!
And then we could be Abigail, Brittany&Celeste. Buuuut. I probably won't do that. Because I like my name. And that would just be silly.

Ok that's all for now.

Love, Celeste
haha jk. Love, Noelle

Protesting in Peru... Whaaaaat???

So we just got off the phone with the manager in charge of our expedition to Peru.

Turns out the city we're shipping ourselves off to has been entirely shut down due to "violent protesting"  Buses, schools, businesses, stores.. shut down.

Please note the clubs and swords

Feel free to read that again in case it didn't process correctly the first time.

I wish you could have seen Brittany, Abigail and my faces when Chris was telling us this over speaker phone. Priceless.

I've been doing some research on it, and have found comforting bits of info such as, "Villagers battled police and smashed company offices in the northern Andean region of Cajamarca" and "Violent protests force Peru to suspend Cajamarca gold mine."

Look it up, see whatcha think :)

Are we still going....?

Oh yeah!

The adventure factor just got upped 1300%.

Bring it on Peru. See you in 40 days.


Love, Noelle

We're Official :)

Let it be known that it all officially went down on 11-10-2011

a. I officially bought my non-refundable plane ticket to Peru.
b. I officially accepted a Project Manager internship position at LDS IT and Communication
c. My mind is officially blown.

This is really happening. My goals and dreams are now a reality. OH MY GOODNESS. Ok here's the whole story. Feel free to keep reading, but I don't blame you if you don't.... this is going to get kind of lengthy :)

a. See all my other posts about Peru for more info here. the non-refundable tickets were purchased today, so this is a done deal!

b. At the beginning of the semester we had a career fair on campus. I'm a junior and have been getting anxious about getting an internship before I graduate (a requirement for my major). So I attended in hopes to get the ball moving on some sort of internship. Secretly I wanted something super chill in Rexburg so I could stay here for my off-track and kill two birds with one stone. That would have been so easy and so comfortable.

Well, that night I took a shot in the dark and signed up for an interview with LDS Information Technology and Communication. In my mind I had worked up this plan in my mind here's what it consisted of:


I would spend my winter semester in Peru doing Humanitarian work, and then I would come home and spend my spring semester interning for the church. It just seemed so right!

Well, a couple hours before my interview I had a total melt down! I had told a few people about my plan to interview for this department of the church and they all asked, "Uhhh do you know anything about Information Technology?" My answer was of course no, and I began to feel so inadequate and so under-qualified. I even got on the computer and logged onto the website where I signed up for the interview and came THIS CLOSE to cancelling it. I was so discouraged!

Well after a chat with my dear mom, I decided to go for it anyways and give it all I got. So I did. The interview went well, I applied for a Human Resource internship, something I'm very interested in. Towards the end of the interview I was told that they'd like to interview me further for this position, but I had to understand that this was a one-year internship. I'd have to leave school for one whole year. ONE YEAR! That didn't feel right to me, so I asked if there was another position I could apply for. He told me to think about my decision for a few days and to let him know if I'd like to continue on with the interview process for human resource. He then directed me to the man in charge of interviewing for project, product and process management (at the time I had no idea what any of that meant :) So I did another interview right then for those internship positions.

I left the interviews feeling ok, but not very hopeful. It was a good experience, but I realized how under qualified I was. Two weeks later I received a phone call from the church's hiring department. They told me that they had two hiring managers who each wanted a follow-up telephone interview with me. So I set them both up and interviewed for them later that week. Holla

The first interview was for project management. Let's just say that it was 50 of the most vigorous, intense minutes of my life. When I hung up the phone, I seriously collapsed on my bed out of sheer exhaustion. It was not child's play that's for sure. At the end of the interview I was told that he was very confident in my communication skills and how well I handled the stressful situations he put me in (we did a simulation) without letting emotion get in the way. He just worried about how little I knew about computer information technology. So he said he'd give me the next two weeks to learn as much as I could about CIT and then he'd call me back and interview me on it. My homework began that night and I have studied my guts out since then!

Five days later I had another interview with the same company, but a different hiring manager. This one was not as intense, and rather enjoyable. He went through my resume (he was impressed :) and we talked about some leadership experiences that I've been in. It was great!

Ten days later, yesterday, I received the phone call saying that I got the internship. I was seriously speechless when she was explaining things on the phone. I couldn't believe it! I was so overwhelmed and seriously just wanted to cry. I called my pops and told him post haste. My mom squealed :) I had four classes to attend right after that, and I couldn't tell you a single thing that was said in any of them. I was so side tracked. My mind was racing all day long.

So this is it! My dream is coming true! I'm deferring from school for the spring semester (this breaks my heart, but it must be done). I start the week right after I get home from Peru. I will be interning in Riverton, UT as a project manager. I'll be working 40 hours a week and making 2.5 times as much as I do now :)

My heart is so full of gratitude for these amazing experiences. I was so dreading turning 21 next month, but something tells me that this year will be one of the best I could ever imagine.

And since this post is so lengthy, I'll leave you a picture that's worth 1000 words:

This is me and my goober-FHE brothers. How I love them!

Thanks for listening :)

Love, Noelle

Bucket List: To Do in Peru

I decided to compile a bucket list of things that I want to do or accomplish during my time in Peru. I'll cross them off and probably blog about them as we go. Feel free to add suggestions :)  I'll post this as one of the tabs on my homepage so you can view it whenever you desire and see my new updates on it!

• Milk a goat or llama or something of that sort
• Make homemade ice cream, Peruvian style (do they eat ice cream there??!?!)
• Plant something and watch it grow for three months
• Get to the point where I can read and understand my Spanish BOM without any help from my English one
• Try Guinea Pig
• Make Guinea Pig Bacon
• Learn a new crafty Peruvian skill
• Play soccer
• Get decent at soccer
• Ride a large animal for transportation (donkey, llama, elephant...giant guinea pig?)
• Give away a Spanish BOM
• Bear my testimony in Sacrament meeting
• Try as many different fruits and vegi's as possible
• Take 3,000 pictures :)
• Obtain a Spanish nickname!
• Sing in Spanish
• Go running in Peru
• Soak up as much sun as possible
• Go fishing
• Get sock tan lines
• Make a new friend
• Have a Peruvian follower on my blog
• Visit a temple/temple site
•  Learn a new quinoa recipe, I hear they're genius with that stuff in Peru (it is an Andean grain after all :)

Fun huh?
I have three dear friends on missions in Peru right now (Ryan Whiteside, Wes Wagner and Heather Lindsey) and I wish I could just call them all up and have them help me add to my list. I'm sure they'd be very insightful.

Love, Noelle

P.S. Here's a fun update! Ms. Brittany Meyer will now be joining Abigail and I on this quest!  Wahooooo!

Brittany and I at 6 am right before our Temple to Temple Relay Race!

  Brittany came over tonight and we discussed some of the logistics of this mighty venture. Let's just say that I am SO excited to go!

Because I Have Been Given Much

I too must give.

So I didn't go into much detail about my upcoming Peru adventure. Here's a few more details to tide you over until I get a chance to really delve into it. p.s. have you noticed that I say "delve" a lot? I'm not even sure I'm using it correctly... hmmm

The organization I'm going through is a humanitarian organization called Eagle Condor Humanitarian. They have projects set up throughout South America. Each project is either a Step 1, Step 2, or Step 3 project. My particular one is a Step 2 project. 

"Step 2 projects focus on working directly with children and/or training heads of family to become more self-sustaining so children can stay in school enabling them to gain access to better jobs and futures. Step 2 projects are able to focus on education and community development."

So as a Step 2 volunteer, I will be involved with the following:

• Discover social identity and self-worth
• Educational Opportunities
• One-to-one mentorship programs through interns
• School Enhancement – Literacy Centers, Computer Labs, etc…
• Community Development – Greenhouses, Bathrooms, , etc….

You guys, I can't even tell you how excited I am. I'm seriously geeking out. To be honest I've all but dropped out of school at this point.  I don't have any desire to do homework or study or ANYTHING. I just want to run away to Peru. Right. this. instant. Can you blame me?

I can't wait til I'm posting pictures of me with Peruvian kids!!!

 Any advice? Words of Wisdom? Concerns? Shared Excitement??

Love, Noelle

Dare to Do Great Things

A few days ago, Sister Dalton came to campus and told us to get out of our comfort zones and dare to do great things. Dream big she said.

Here's what's in my comfort zone: Hot water. My favorite foods. English. My family. Rexburg. BYU-Idaho. Claire Salmon. America.

Here's what I dream big about:

Children

Humanitarian Work

Peru

Making a Difference

It's blog official. I am stepping out of my comfort zone.  Come January, I'm leaving America, my family, Claire, Rexburg, school, my food, my hot water...everything for three short months.

I'm going to Peru. How could I not?
Love,
Noelle

Peru....ok?

You guys. I. am. going. to. Peru.

Wait. What?

I AM GOING TO PERU!
Now to answer the questions that immediately came to your mind upon reading this fantastic statement:

 1.  WHAT???

NO, I do not speak Spanish, and no I'm not crazy! I took 4 years in high school, thanks for making me stick with it Senor Larsen! And then I took Spanish 101 last semester. Sooo I feel like I've learned plenty from a textbook and the only way I'll ever learn more is to get out there and submerge myself into a Spanish culture.

2.When

I'm leaving in January and I'll be back in March or early April. This is during my off-track at school, so it works out perfect. It's so weird to think that I'll be missing a Winter in Rexburg. Winter is always my favorite semester and I have loved spending in them in Rexburg, buuuut I'll be skipping the winter season altogether seeing as it'll be Spring/Summer in Peru.

Kind of sad that I'll be missing out on prime-time sledding season...

3. Where

  We have a few options as to where in Peru we're going. An official decision hasn't been made yet, but I'm leaning towards the jungle/mountainous area :)

4. Who

Abigail Tucker introduced me to this program just about a week ago. She is also off-track in the Winter, so we're doing this together. Thank goodness! I think we'll make a fabulous team, and I'm sooo happy that I'll a bit of home there with me. Not to mention an American who speaks English! YES!

5. Why

  Ahhh where to even begin with this the whys. I feel like there are so many reasons why I am doing this, and reason's that I'm not even sure of yet. But here's a few of the basics: I've finally figured out what I want to do with my life, my career. I've bounced around between a few things here and there, but none of them have ever truly appealed to me. Here's what appeals to me: Humanitarian Work. I've known I've always wanted to work for the church, but I thought that it might be in their Public Relation department, or their Human Resource department. Both would be great, but... eh, great for someone else maybe. I want to work in their Humanitarian Aid department. Too bad BYU-I doesn't offer that as a major :)..so Communications is going to have to get me there, and I think it will.

Cool huh?
Love, Noelle

Hymn. Him. Hmmmmm?

This post will consist of three segments. Hymn. Him. and Hmmm? Hopefully one of them will tickle your fancy :)

HYMN 

Pretty much, every semester I pick my favorite hymn at the time and completely delve into it and study the guts out of it. And somehow they have completely applied to that time in my life and have been a huge source of comfort and guidance. They've kept me sane.

Last Winter, easily one of my favorite semesters, my hymn was "More Holiness Give Me".

Winter 2010: Homestead. Oh yes.

Genius of a song really. It was so perfect for what was going on in my life and so perfect for what I wanted to accomplish that semester. I took it apart phrase by phrase, and worked on and studied one phrase a week. Oooo, even just thinking about it gives me the chills. Such a good experience.

Last Spring, easily one of my weirdest semesters, (which doesn't really mean much because it was still an INCREDIBLE semester) was just a super interesting time in my life where I really didn't know what I wanted to do with my life and I just needed some direction.

Clearly In Need of Some Direction :)

And fittingly enough, the song that I couldn't get out of my head ALLL semester was, "Lead Kindly Light". Ohhh I love that hymn. So beautiful. So comforting. So perfect.

Fall 2011- Off to a very good start

I'll give you a hint as to what this semester's hymn is. Open up the most recent General Conference Ensign to a random page and you have like a 75% chance of opening up to a talk that deals with this topic. One talk is even titled the name of this hymn. Got it? Yup, it's "Have I Done Any Good".  So this is the one I'm focusing and studying now, and I love it already. The lyrics are packed with "Duh!-no-brainers" that we could all do to hear more often. So I'm pretty excited about this.

HIM.

 So people are always asking about the men in my life. So I figured I'd sort it all out for you right here... ha if you thought I was seriously going to spill my guts about boys right here, you are sorely mistaken, sorry folks :) If you're really that curious, come to me and I'll tell you everything you want to know.
Moving on...

Hmmmmm?

Here's also what I'm pretty excited about. PERU. Yeah. Peru. Can't get that off my mind either... so maybe it's supposed to be there. More on that later, but until then... PERU PERU PERU!!! If that doesn't make you say Hmmm.. I don't know what will!

That's all for now folks (is it obvious that I ran out of time and had to rush the ending of this? Yes? Whoops!)

Goood night all, I'm a happy, happy girl!

Love, Noelle