Brandice is back!!!

"Your friends will know you better in the first minute they meet you than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years."
~ Richard Bach



Brandice has been lost in Korea for the past six weeks and is finally back in the land of the free!
By lost, I mean she was doing a business internship and had a really great experience putting what she's been studying into practice, learning about a different culture, and most of all getting hit on by Korean men. What more could a girl ask for?! I am so happy that she's back and have been thinking about how lucky I am to have such a great friend. I put this quote at the top because within literally five minutes of our first conversation, I asked her if she wanted to be my roommate for the next semester. She felt a little overwhelmed by my eagerness but handled it well and we've been best friends ever since. We had such a fun summer before our missions, mostly consisting of laughing for hours in our room, spying on people coming home from their dates, convincing Tim that we were his two favorite girls, and apparently eating a lot as the pictures now testify (I tried to not include any that were too telling of the superfluous lbs). After 18 months in Madagascar, and her in Boise, it was so reassuring for me to have a friend to live with who totally got me. She understood when I just missed my mission. She completely related when I felt like a piece of crap for not having my day booked up with the most effective ways of helping others. We seem to experience the same stages of dating but at completely opposite times, which I've concluded is so that we can advise each other through it rather than both being completely confused at the same time. Luckily we go through stages of food addictions at the same times, which makes our grocery trips pretty simple...stuff for bagel sandwiches, stuff for burritos, oreos, and milk. I love this girl to death and am so happy to have her back!

This is me.

My current residence is Provo, Utah where I live with three other awesome girls (two right now because my roomie left me to go to KOREA). When I take the time to stop and reflect on my life, I realize how truly blessed I am in so many different aspects. I love BYU. Studying special education has been the perfect fit for me (laugh if you must :)). It was something that I really felt that I should study and I fought that for a little bit...luckily Heavenly Father was persistent with me until I gave in and decided to apply to get into the program. I have never regretted it since.


Love that my siblings and my parents are my best friends. They are the greatest examples to me and I learn so much about life and how to ride the rollercoaster it sometimes puts us on by seeing how they have done it. I love that when something significant happens in my life, or something insignificant, I know that I have at least 5 phone calls to make to my parents and each of my sisters. Then my brother, Ryan and his wife Tammy get caught up when Ry and I have our catch-up chat every three months or so. We always have so much fun laughing and reminiscing (even though I wasn't born yet for half of the memories). The picture to the right is Ryley and I. I am crazy about this little girl. Her parents and little brother are pretty cool too.

Our apartment! I have lived with these girls since last June and we have shared a whole spectrum of experiences together. We've seen each other through many successes and failures. By that I mean awesome relationships and horrible breakups. That was a joke, but really. Luckily our lives consist of more than just boys...we make pinatas together, ride on ski lifts when there's a full moon, eat Rachelle's awesome home cookin', run 5Ks, and PILLOW TALK like crazy. I've learned a lot from them and hate when I come home to an empty apartment.

Trying to figure this out...

So...I've stalking my roommate's blog recently and realized that I am missing out on recording a lot of things that go on in my life. I have been trying to be better about journaling lately, but somehow it's a lot more exciting to write (as well as read) when there are pictures, cute backgrounds, and font colors involved. As if I didn't already spend enough time on gmail and facebook, here's yet another reason to spend my time online.