jen-ri 4 lyfe

21 years ago today, a beautiful blessing was born.

That's what "Emi' means in Japanese.

And a beautiful blessing, she is. :)

Jennae and I first met in the summer of '96. Her mom was pregnant when we moved in and I thought her mom was permanently shaped like that (I was 5...what can I say?)

Apparently, we were friends but we hardly recall those times.

I first invited her to my house to play in 5th grade. We made cookies. I used my hands to form the dough and place it on the tray. Jennae used a spoon. Later, my mom told me I should follow Jennae's example.

Jen Jen and I became close pals in middle school. We knew we were cool when I was NJHS president and then she would be next year's president. So, I passed on the torch. We have a picture together from that night. She was literally a foot taller than me.

We even dabbled in a bit of church ball from time to time:

By this time...we were old enough to go Girl's Camp. Oh Girl's Camp. Is there anything like it?

GC 2006

We thought matching every day would be cool for GC 2007

Speaking of summer 07, it is a legendary summer in our book of friendship. We were inseparable. We spent every single day together. And any moment we weren't together, we were on the phone. I still remember the days the she got texting- July 17, 2007. It was the greatest day.

We even had our birthday party together.

Making wishes with our two crushes nearby

We made dozens of high school memories together.

Wedding receptions *why didn't yall tell me to tuck my shirt in?

Prom

Jennae's Marquette Show

Lunchtime

Stake Softball

SMOSS reps 

Our Hannah Montana Phase

More Girls Camp mems

EFY

And then continued making memories in college <3

Jennae's 18th birthday

Hikes for dayyss

Summer Ten- summer of dreams

New Year's Eve- love being together during Christmas Break

Go Cougs

Concerts

#ldsconf

Summer girls. All of us.

Classic Photo Spot

Jennae and I will be best friends for life. We've been through so much together. She is always willing to listen to me worry and to laugh at my jokes :] She's beautiful, hilarious, diligent, kind, thoughtful, loyal, passionate, and delightful. Love you forever Jennae Emi <3

Zooey 101

Zooey Deschenal just said it perfectly,

"Being tender and open is beautiful. As a woman, I feel continually shh'ed. Too sensitive. Too mushy. Too wishy washy. Blah blah. Don't let someone steal your tenderness. Don't allow the coldness and fear of others to tarnish your perfectly vulnerable beating heart. Nothing is more powerful than allowing yourself to truly be affected by things. Whether it's a song, a stranger, a mountain, a rain drop, a tea kettle, an article, a sentence, a footstep, feel it all-- look around you. All of this is for you. Take it and have gratitude. Give it and feel love."

This is My Life

Lately, my mom has a hilarious habit of saying "this is my life." She says it anytime something comical happens. I use the word comical very loosely. You see, there are two kinds of people in the world. People who roll with the punches and people who do not. My mom is so fabulous at rolling with the punches. No one would ever describe her as high-maintenance or high-strung. I want to be like her when I grow up. Anyway, she finds humor in nearly everything that her children say and simply tells me, "this is my life."

This week, I babysat my younger siblings while my parents were out of town. I would like to share a few of the "this is my life" moments with you.

1. My family moved from Dallas to Seattle last summer and has obviously seen a little less sunshine. Yesterday I was making dinner and looked outside and saw a shirtless man sitting and playing guitar in our backyard. That shirtless man was my brother. He said he needed to get some sun before he went boating with his friends on Saturday. I called everyone to eat and another brother decided he needed to go shirtless as well.  This is my life.

2. My youngest sister has adjusted to Seattle weather and her body temp is naturally warmer than the rest of ours. She feels like 60 degrees is "soooo hot." We hopped in the car on and she was eating a tortilla (didn't want anything on it because she's 6 and that's what happens when you're 6) and she started sweating bullets. All she said was "thank GOODNESS I have a tortilla to give me shade." I was amused by it all and forgot to answer. So she said it again...but this time in a British accent. Reread that sentence with a British accent and tell me you don't laugh at the last word. This is my life.

3. And lastly, the following incidence took place at the 12 year old brother's track meet. When I arrived, he was bleeding profusely and I asked what was wrong. He said that people were throwing the batons and one landed on his head. I laughed an hour later when he said "Well, it might have been me that dropped the baton on my head." Ahh...the truth comes out. This is my life.

Also...Matt was wearing is sports glasses because his normal ones were broken for the fourth time this year.

Thanks for stopping by, y'all.

Noteworthy Goes to CA

In case you are unaware (but if you are close to me, you are probably aware), I sing in BYU's women's a cappella group called Noteworthy. The group has been around for a decade but this is my first year as a Noteworthy lady. We spends hours and hours together and we love to sing and laugh and dance. These girls are like sisters. We've seen each other at our lowest lows and highest highs.

Recently, we filmed our first music video and we had a blast. We went to Utah Lake at 7am and sang to our heart's content. We put our video on YouTube last week and we are flored by the positive feedback we've gotten. It is SO fun to share what we've been working on. You can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km55SW6em-E

Last weekend, we journeyed to Southern California. We had an absolute blast. We hosted workshops, had a concert, put on a fireside, and sang in church on Sunday. Being in the sunshine was a dream come true and it made me so antsy for summertime!

We stopped in Vegas and sang on the strip.

So fun to work with these talented high school students!

We had lunch in the cutest spot! It's called the Grizzy Cafe & I highly recommend it.

Sometimes before our shows, we eat giant subs because that's all we really know how to do. Lol.

The real reason we went to Southern California was to sit on the beach. Can't even describe how wonderful it was.

So grateful for these girls and grateful for the chance to sing so frequently. :)

Why I'm Going to Brazil for 18 Months

Chances are you've probably seen Mormon missionaries riding their bikes or knocking on doors.

And chances are....you probably thought they were a little crazy. After all, who would want to roam about in 100 degree weather in the Texas summers....or -40 degree weather in Moscow, Russia? Who would want to say goodbye to friends and family, put off school for a while, and volunteer for 18-24 months?

Well, I do!

I'm not going because I want to go on a fun adventure. I already had a few of those experiences...and you can read about them here and here.

I'm not going because my little sister is going (although it is certainly a bonus that we'll be out at the same time). Allison is going to Brazil, as well. When I opened my letter stating where I'd be going, we both just started to cry. Missionaries for our church don't get to choose where we go. We could go anywhere-- from Chile to Chicago, from Japan to Jacksonville. I never guessed that I'd be sent to the same place as my sister. I won't see her while I'm there because I'll be in São Paulo, Brazil and she'll be in Manaus, Brazil. However, after our missions, we will both share a love of Brazil and an ability to speak Portuguese (hopefully!).

I'm not going because I don't have anything better to do. There are lots of good things to do here. Right now, I'm singing lots, and dating lots, and studying lots, and working lots. These are all good things, but I still feel good about leaving.

I'm going because I love God and I love people and if I could help one person feel a little bit of God's love, then it is worth it to me.

The past six months have been really confusing at times. I've been trying to make life plans and big decisions. The choices I've been making will significantly affect my future! I made pros and cons lists, I cried on the phone with my mom, I talked with my roommates, I read old journal entries, but at the end of the day I just stayed confused about what I was doing with my life. The only thing that got me through all of this was the fact that I could center my life around God. I learned that His plan for me was better than any plan that I could imagine. And with that knowledge, I found so much peace. When I serve a mission, I will spend time teaching others that same lesson I have learned. And if I can give one person a small portion of that peace, then it's worth it to me. It is worth it to me to sacrifice 18 months of my life, to take a break from school, to say goodbye to loved ones.

I am God's daughter. He is my Father. Every human being is His child. And life....no matter how confusing, or difficult, or trying it may be...feels a bit more stable, steady, and secure if we know that He is aware of us. 

Grateful that God is good, always. Grateful that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, suffered for my sins, died on the cross,  and rose again for me. Grateful for the peace I find in this simple message and grateful that I get to share that message with people I meet in Brazil.

lifelately

I lost all of my pictures from fall semester and I cried about it. They say not to cry over spilled milk, but pictures are another story!! Not to worry...I have since installed the Dropbox app on my celly:) All my pics go straight to my laptop.... which means it's time to blog. 

Aside from saying ta-ta to our favorite homies, the worst part of leaving home this year was leaving behind Just Dance 4. I will not disclose how many hours we spent playing this game. However, I will admit I was slightly surprised that learning Noteworthy choreography still comes as a bit of a challenge considering how much practicing I did over the break....lol.

Weatherwise, the first few weeks of January were abysmal. Snow is beautiful; don't get me wrong! My phone is full of beautiful, sparkly snow pics. That being said, there is nothing beautiful about zero degrees. I now see the light at the end of the tunnel, as we groove into a steady 30 degrees.

On one of these aforementioned zero degree days, I wanted to reward myself for walking from my car to the Richards Building. So, I treated myself to Legends. There is nothing a light lunch can't fix! 

Seeing my Noteworthy ladies after the break was wonderful. We missed each other. I love love love singing with these incredible women. I feel so blessed to be a part of this group. Be sure to like us on Facebook, if you haven't already (shameless social media plug...).

So far, 2013 has been a season of selfies. For anyone who doesn't know, a "selfie" is a common term in my generation. A "selfie" is when you employ the front camera function on a smart phone in order to take pictures of yourself. I love taking selfies because I hate leaving people out when it's time to take the pic! It's the best way to squeeze everyone it. Although selfies have been popular for a while, I believe I am partial to selfie-taking because it might run in the family.

Does Courtney's duckface-kissylip-dueces combo remind you of 9th grade?

Zack Oates is the real blogger...

*probably daydreaming about how much fun we had in Jerusalem

Danny & John turned 22 last week and both were surprised! It has been so fun spending time with these boys back from serving missions. We became besties in the dorms and it's like they never left. Grateful for friendships that withstand the test of time:)

Before I close, I need to fill y'all in on a little secret we recently learned from a 10 year-old.... The trick to taking creepy smile pictures is simply smiling and tilting your head down (example is shown below).

Shalom y'all! Friday is on its way!