big things

Big things have happened in both of our lives in the past week. REALLY big things. 

If you haven't bought Ashley's single on iTunes. . .

GET OFF THIS PAGE AND GO BUY IT RIGHT NOW!! It is seriously amazing. And if you haven't heard, it's a little different than the original cut so add it to your music collection immediately. And once you're hooked and wanting more, do not fear, Ashley is headed to the studio next week :) The response has been CRAZY and amazing (but who is surprised by that?) and she is working to have an entire demo CD done by the end of the summer. Like I said, big things.

As for me, I graduated from college last week.

Yeah. It's weird. It didn't really hit me until I was at Commencement and we were presented to President Samuelson as candidates for our degrees and I thought, "I now have bachelor's degree. From BYU." So, I cried right there in the Marriott Center. As a younger girl, I dreamt of going to BYU and I always wanted to make sure I finished my degree. And I did it. 

I thought it would feel different. I thought I would feel like I knew everything about my major and just smarter overall, like I would just know things. But I don't. And that kind of scared me, like I didn't do it right or that I was not prepared to enter this next phase of my life. But over my first full week as a college graduate (which was spent sitting on the couch of my parents' home. typical) I thought a lot about what I learned and who I have become because of my four years at BYU, and it has changed me dramatically. I have learned much more then just about public health and some other general information. I learned a lot about me and about life, and that I still have a whole bunch to learn in every area that exists as I continue on. So, without further ado:

Sarah's top 5 lessons learned in college:

1. The gospel is true and the Lord loves us.

I had a testimony before I started at BYU, but man, has it grown exponentially! I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is the greatest part of who I am. I have such a testimony of incorporating the little things in our daily lives (prayer, scripture study, etc.) and how important those things are to having the spirit with you always. I have also learned how to better communicate in my Father in Heaven and hear what he wants me to do. I need to rely on Him every day and I know he has a plan for me. 

2. It is okay to ask for help.

And we should! All the time! And I'm not just talking about in school work, but in so many areas of life, and especially from the Lord, but also from parents, bishops, friends, etc.

3. I want to go into worksite wellness.

I love health, but I struggled knowing what area of public health my passion lay in. But after my internship, now I know! internships = :)

4. Even if you don't do so hot in high school, you can get good grades in college.

My college GPA is totally better than my high school one was. I learned a ton about how to study and apply myself in ways I didn't know were possible. 

5. I am a heck of a lot stronger than I realized.

Part of that comes from having faith and learning to rely on the Lord, but my motto is (even if Ashley hates it) I can do hard things!

There are a billion more of course, but these are a few of the basics. I hope to learn even more in this next stage of my life! (and that it gets even better :)

peace, love, and temple marriage

DC love and our famous girl

Sarah here. I've been a little absent as of late and Ash has taken over the responsibility of updating y'all on our lives. But now that I have officially finished all my classes at BYU and graduate this week, I have some free time for the ole' blog (look for a graduation/college reflection post next week).

I realized I never talked about my trip to DC, which is weird because if you are around me you know that I talk about it a ton. I am now blissfully obsessed with Washington D.C. I LOVED it. I can't put my finger on what is exactly that I love about it, but while I was there I just found myself soaking it all in and loving the beauty and history of that city.

For those that don't know, I went with BYU for a health advocacy summit. Basically, it was conference where we learned about effective methods for advocacy work and specifically the topics pertaining to public health that were advocating for. Then we stormed the Hill Monday morning and that was that.

It was a good experience and something great to put on my resume, but I don't love advocacy work, nor is that the area of public health that I hope to make my career in. Guilty confession: I just loved the free trip more than anything. . . Oops! :) Well I thought I'd share a few photos of my favorite parts of my trip.

Georgetown. I LOOOVED this place. I went there probably 3 nights of the 5 days I was there.

The Metro! I definitely learned my way around the metro routes as that was our only form of transportation. Tons of walking and switching trains, but I loved it!

President Lincoln. It was amazing to see this memorial in person. I felt a little star struck!

Blueberry buckwheat pancakes from a little place in Eastern Market. FABULOUS and a definite must have if you're in the area.

I have never been much of a cupcake person, but after trying this little baby at Baked n' Wired in Georgetown, I am converted. YUM.

Crazy cool little hole-in-the-wall bookstore.

The White House! We didn't have time for a tour unfortunately, so that's on the list for the next time I go :)

Ahhh, looking at these pictures makes me miss it immensely. But there's exciting things going on in Provo, too. . .

If you've been on facebook at all lately, you've probably listened to Ashley's song!! And I'm sure you can agree that it is absolutely and insanely AMAZING!!! How talented is my best friend?!? I was lucky enough to go with her to the studio with her both days and it was so cool! The first day they worked on just laying down the music and yes, that is Ashley playing the guitar :) But the amazing David "Dub Dee" produced it and made it into the amazing song you hear today. He added so much cool stuff and helped Ash find the places for harmonies and all that jazz. They spent 5 1/2 hours the first day just making the music and then 2 1/2 hours the second day recording the vocals and putting it together. There might be some work being done this week to polish it up and make it more amazing. . . just a hint ;) Then please look for it on itunes!!! More info on that in the future. But for now, the response to the song has been amazing! So many people, even people that don't know Ashley are obsessed with it. It's definitely going places :)

You know in movies when they want to talk to the person in the recording room and they push a button to talk to them? Yeah, this was my button to talk to Ash. Kinda legit.

The studio and Dub Dee.

My girl, doin her thing. Could she be any more amazing?!?

Where the magic happens :)

If you are one of the few, unfortunate ones to have not heard the Ashley Hess original You'll Miss Me yet, go here. Warning: You won't want to stop playing it and you'll be jammin to it constantly for probably at least a week. p.s. you might see a little special appearance of the voice of yours truly in the third chorus. . .

Good things are happening. Opportunities are coming. Doors are opening.

peace, love and temple marriage

sarah out of town + insomnia = ashley's brain dump.

well, let's start with today. today was one of the four best days of the year. it obviously wasn't christmas so that's an automatic elimination, well i don't even really like christmas day. i like the christmas season. but i guess there would be no season without the day itself, so i'm grateful for christmas day. and it's a lot more fun now with nieces who are so excited and animated... wow. i digress. okay where were we? oh.. best days of the year, right. well, it wasn't the first day of summer because the wind doesn't usually knock the garbage bins, small trees, and me over during the summer... and it did today. (i have a bruise to prove it) so, considering the last two days (which are actually four days...) are the same event but occur twice a year, by process of elimination that leaves us with... GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!

but really. general conference is my favorite. and not just because i love to be in pajamas all day, but because i learn so much every time and feel so inspired and prepared to better myself and work on my weaknesses. i have had to opportunity to go to at least one session of conference every year for the past two years, and went again this year to the saturday morning session, which was absolutely incredible. i am so blessed to be able to have such a rare and amazing opportunity, to be in the presence of so many men and women called of God. i think i take it for granted and don't realize how remarkable being at conference is until i return each year. but how can one forget such a powerful experience; to be in the presence of our prophet and apostles and feel of the incredible spirit that resides throughout the entirety of the meeting. and the mormon tabernacle choir...... SO AMAZING. ohh don't get me started. i decided that i will be a member of that choir before i die. but really. their sound, pitch, quality, pronunciation, dynamics, emotion, control, and ability to be so perfectly in unison is unbelievable. it is truly an amazing thing to hear live and i recommend if you haven't heard them before, take the next opportunity you can because you will not regret it. their rendition of "Come Thou Fount" that they sang to end the Sunday morning session brought me to tears. they are truly incredible and i could go on for days and days.

so what were your favorite parts of conference? favorite talks, favorite songs, favorite one-liners? everything! well, i'll tell you mine :]

i honestly could write every single word, whether spoken or sang, throughout each session of conference and say it was my favorite because each message was so inspired and powerful that it's hard to pick only a few from the many amazing messages. so i'll try and narrow it down to five (in no particular order because i can't rank one higher than the other, i love them all).

1. Donald L. Hallstrom: The Gospel and the Church.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YReZdNbLBlw

i loved this talk. he talked about the differences in being active in the church and being active in the gospel and how those who fall away may be active in the church, but not in the gospel itself. he gave three ways to help us be active in the gospel: one: deepen understanding of diety, two: focus on ordinances and covenants, and three: unite the gospel with the church. "The Lord wants the members of HIS church to be fully converted to HIS gospel."

2. Jeffrey R. Holland: The Labourers in the Vineyard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYogSVAZZVU&feature=relmfu

Elder Holland is one of my favorite apostles. are you allowed to have favorite apostles? well, if you are, he's mine. he is such and eloquent speaker, always speaking with such power and knowledge and i have never listened to him speak without being overcomeby the spirit. He always has great one-liners that stick with you, and this talk was no different. some of my favorite quotes from this talk were, "why should you be jealous because i chose to be kind," "the formula to faith is to HOLD ON," "surely the thing God enjoys most about being God, is the thrill of being merciful," and my personal favorite "it is not possible for you to sink lower then the infinite light of Christ's atonement shines." what a powerful message with a powerful spirit from a powerful witness of Christ.

3. When President Thomas S. Monson walked in saturday morning for the first session of conference and patted his sweet wife on the head as he passed her. i don't know why, but it made me laugh and just smile. I love that man so much!!!!

"the prize belongs to him, the endures to the end" - Thomas S. Monson.

4. When the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang "Come Thou Fount." that songs has a special place in my heart for multiple reasons. their rendition added to my list of reasons. it was so powerful and moving and words, especially mine, could not do it justice to describe how incredible it was. so listen to it.... :] (this was the recording from 2007, but it's the same version and amazing just the same)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uslytyVrWFw

5. Dieter F. Uchtdorf quoting a bumper sticker. haha that was so awesome and hilarious, but it was perfect. "don't judge me because i sin differently than you." i love that!!! we all sin so who are we to judge? his talk was also one of my favorites. i need to remember to be quicker to forgive rather than hold grudges and remain angry and upset over petty disagreements. also that i need to forgive myself before i forgive others, which is the hardest part for me.

did i seriously already say five things a loved about conference? i haven't even scratched the surface of all i wanted to share!!! Elder Eyring's talk about trials and faith, "trials aren't always for punishment, but for polishing," MoTab's rendition of "Love At Home," Sister Julie B. Beck's talk- "rags to robes," seeing Elder David Archuleta in the MTC choir, and the example he is setting of the importance to serve a mission, for young men especially, Russell M. Nelson's analogy of the big bang theory to a printing store blowing up and producing a dictionary (haha! i'm totally using that), Sister Esplin's talk about teaching kids at a young age the doctrine of Christ, M. Russell Ballard proving me theory and basically saying that young women are more often willing to start eternal families and seek after marriage while men are not putting in sufficient effort (i'm totally going to get crap for that... if anyone even reads this lol) Elder Uchtdorf's two words: STOP IT. i could honestly go on for hours, and i apologize to those of you who are probably annoyed or bored because i basically just restated the entire weekends worth of conference, but i just love it so much.... as you have probably come to understand by now, but i really can't say it enough. I LOVE CONFERENCE.

well i could go on and on about conference and go into detail about what i loved about each talk but i'll spare you. haha. thank goodness for journals, right? ;] i also could talk about all the crazy things running through this brain of mine but, once again, i'll spare you. not because i don't want to bore you, but i have class in about six hours and so i should probably try and battle my insomnia to get at least five hours of sleep so i can function.

okay so i don't actually have insomnia, i just diagnosed myself with it since i never sleep. i actually diagnose myself with a lot of things. i get random headaches and, as of late, migraines, so i diagnosed myself with a brain tumor. i obviously don't have the equipment to take an MRI of my brain, and i probably just get headaches because i never sleep, hence my diagnosis of insomnia, but i am thoroughly convinced i have a brain tumor. a couple of weeks ago i got pretty sick and i still have a cough from it, so naturally i diagnosed myself with swine flu. i don't think that a symptom of swine flu is a lasting cough, or any cough for that matter, but it was kind of a big deal a while ago so i thought that might be a fun thing to tell people. last year i noticed a little bump on my back that was pretty close to my spine and i thought it was the source of my back pain so i went into the doctor to get an ACTUAL diagnosis. you should all be proud i put this one in the hands of a professional. well, turns out it was a lipoma, but i heard lymphoma... so i thought i had cancer. that was a scary ten seconds of my life. but the doctor reassured me that it was just a group of fat cells clumped together, chillin by my spine. (he didn't use those exact words, obviously. if he did, i would be a little concerned... which goes to show why i am not a doctor and why my self diagnosis's are most likely 100% FALSE. insomnia being an exception). is that a fat joke?? whatever. so i then proceeded with my usual self diagnosis and diagnosed myself with an allergy to food. whenever i eat it i break out into fat. awesome. so now i'm an insomniac with a brain tumor, swine flu, almost cancer patient but instead fat girl. and now you probably all just diagnosed me with depression and low self-esteem for calling myself fat. don't worry. i don't actually think i'm fat, i just say it because i'm a girl, and it's what we do. we say we're fat and complain about being fat when most of us aren't even fat. we just say we are anyways because we can. which leads me to my last diagnosis: girls are crazy. argue it all you want but it's a fact of life. girls are legitimately crazy. and i'm not saying that guys aren't crazy, or have the right to call us crazy, because they most definitely do NOT. why? because that would make us more crazy. well maybe it's just me that's crazy... i guess i can't diagnose all girls as crazy when it could be just me... but then again i'm right. girls are crazy. but you learn to love us..... or at least tolerate us :] but this video CRACKS ME UP! these guys depicting girls.... nailed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gspaoaecNAg&feature=relmfu

"i shared half my bagel with the garbage." "i inhaled a gust of wind on my way to work." haha props to these dudes. wow... so much for not rambling. okay, i'm done.

i would end this quite lengthy post with peace, love, self-diagnosis, general conference, and temple marriage, but thats too long. and i'm not quite sure how sarah would feel about that.

peace, love, and temple marriage.