october

October is a month of wildness.

I feel settled down into a school, rehearsal, and work routine.
Even so, midterms seemed to knock me off the course this year.
Several papers, my first science text in two years, and, on top of that, Tupelos rehearsals.

Also, I'm in a musical! I will be playing Rona Peretti in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I am so excited to do musical theater again -- acappella is obviously one of my favorite activities I've joined in college, but musical theater is such a big part of me as well.

There isn't much else to say! Our Spookie Tupie Teaser is tomorrow! Aaaaaaah/

tupelos and flowers

I have finished my first week of Junior Year! I am currently sitting in Mabelly and Kendall's room because GUESS WHAT? I finished all of my work before church today. It feels so good to do that. This past week we tapped 5 wonderful first-years into the Tupelos! One of them chose another group, so now we have four awesome Newpelos! Tap night was fun and I could not be more excited to start singing with the Tupelos tomorrow. 

Here is a picture after all of the lil' babies had been tapped!

Today was Flower Sunday, one of Wellesley's oldest traditions. On this day you receive your Wellesley Little Sister. This is a picture of me and Lizzy's little sister, Kam. She is such a sweetheart!

This is Steffi and me. Steffi is my little sister! We're also in the Tupelos together. We became Wellesley Sisters kind of through our friend, Anisha. Steffi is always a light to my day. She is very calm, funny, and a very logical thinker. I love her!

This week I pledge to sleep more and take more time to think instead of just going all the time. 

happy junior year!

It's that time again.

That time where Grace is like "wow, time flies".

But really, it totally does --
Sometimes it's flying at a really slow pace, enjoying the world, just gliding past events and memories. Other times it is SHOT from a cannon and zooms past your before you can even notice what is actually happening.

Right now I am kind of in the middle of those two extremes. I still have two years left at Wellesley, so I have some time left. But it's insane to think that in a year from now I will be a college senior. It's odd to think that I have watched two classes of my peers and friends graduate from this wonderful, peaceful, and altogether psychotic place of a college.

This year I need to record more. My feelings, words, every-day happenings. Because I need to read back on something tangible. I should not rely on the fact that my memory is semi-good now because frankly, my head will just continue to make new memories. So this blog will be populated more often. I am unsure if anyone besides my mom (love you, momma) will read it. But even so, I will be able to read exactly what is happening right now.  

life & changes

I was listening to the this song tonight and it really resonated with me. Fun fact: I had never listened to this song before today.

Black Keys - Things Ain't Like They Used To Be

The mood of the song is a lot more angsty than I feel right now, but change is something that I have thought about lately. Life is built for change. If we always stayed exactly the same we would not fulfill the purpose of this life - to progress.

If I think back to myself even last summer, I see an almost completely different person - and I like that. I like that I have now lived on my own, worked on my own, and traveled on my own. I have driven more this summer than I ever had in my life, I have even better taste in music (truthfully), and I am getting to know myself and my personality in a deeper way.

I am still impulsive, impatient, and actually crazy, but I like to think that I have become a more thoughtful, grateful, and positive person somewhere along the way.

I will still never lose in a sass battle, but I have learned to listen and respect in new and more meaningful ways.

COTUS - Cats of The United States

I am not necessarily fond of cats, but I thought this was intriguing.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/if-famous-us-presidents-were-replaced-with-cats

Cats that resemble presidents? Pretty cool.

summah lovin'

Why do I never blog? It's a problem.

Here are some things that I have done over the summer!

Saw the U.S.S. Constitution and Bunker Hill :

Visited the Mansions in Providence, Rhode Island:

Sent 600 new-student mailings to Wellesley College's Class of 2016 (that's my co-coordinater, Gissell!)

Went home to and saw Jackie Waldron graduate from high school and Sophie Jane was baptized by RJ!

On the 4th of July I went sailing, ate at Quincy market with friends, and watched fireworks from the Boston Harbor:

Helped plan the University Ward's first IndepenDANCE:

10 of us drove through MA and NH to visit our friend Liza in Camden, Maine. We went boating we ate some quality Maine Lobstah.

This past Thursday, Gissell and I were able to meet the President of Wellesley College, Kim Bottomly. 

And in case you are wondering, this is what I look like: 

I feel like I never see so many of you!

 

Up next: Many meetings for work, a trip to Palmyra, NY, roadtrip to CT and NYC (for the first time!), and then bracing myself for New-Student Orientation -- only 35 days until Student Leaders move-in and 43 until the first-years arrive! Game on. 

Summer state count: 5

2 to go!

a sweet lesson

About two weeks ago my Co-Chair Chris and I planned to do Cupcake Wars as an activity in our Singles Ward for Family Home Evening. We were both really excited for the activity and, at the same time, we were really busy the week before the event was going to take place. On Sunday as Chris announced the activity, a few people asked if they could bring anything. I told one person "maybe some candy would be nice, if you could" and to the rest I really just said "no, I think we'll be alright". As I thought more about it, I kind of became prideful in wanting to plan the entire event on my own. I thought "oh! we'll have tons of cupcakes, and candies, and themes for the groups...." (Hmm, what is wrong with you Grace? You don't have the time to do that). As I walked into the kitchen to clean up the Munch n' Mingle food after church, Sister Porter, the bishop's sweet wife, asked if there was anything she could do to help. I quickly gave her the same response as the previous inquirer "Sister Porter, it would be awesome if you could maybe bring some candies to decorate the cupcakes." She replied, "Absolutely," and that was that.

Now set the stage for Monday evening. This is most likely my second or third Monday at my summer job, I am exhausted and my hair is jutting out from my head every which way (I don't mean to complain, but it was!). I find 25 minutes after work to run with Kendrick to Christmas Tree Shoppes and what do I find? Umm, some animal crackers, a packet of gummy tarantulas, and some JuJuBees. Basically, nothing. But me, being the stubborn optimist that I usually am, was convinced that these three things would be enough for the entire ward to create a mass of cupcake creations. Wrong. But we move on.

Chris, Kendrick, and I arrive at the church with 8 dozen cupcakes and 8 cans of frosting, along with our "goodies" from Christmas Tree Shoppes (for those of you who don't know what that is, it's a kind of more-than-a-dollar dollar store -- they have everything). As Chris and I were putting our animal crackers and odd gummy novelties into styrofoam bowls, our friend Nikki made an AWESOME sign to put up in the gym. Once we were finished, I'd say we had enough bowls for each group to have 4, so 24 bowls. Pretty good, right? Not quite.


As I was worrying "Will this be good enough? Will people think this is a cool activity? Do we have enough cupcakes?", Sister Porter, Bishop Porter, and their daughter Rachel Porter walk in with bags and bags and BAGS of candy and fun things to decorate the cupcakes. And we're not talkin' more animal crackers, we're talking Reese's Pieces, Gummy Bears, M&Ms -- the works. Chris and I could not believe our eyes. I felt so blessed to be supported by Sister Porter and her family. It was just a speechless moment as we rushed to fill more bowls - eventually each team was allowed 11 bowls. That is 7 more for each team than we had originally planned!

It wasn't until after the event, when I was back at Wellesley, that I realized the lesson that this moment had taught me. When we do our best, and even when we don't, the Savior makes up the rest. He provides us with the mercy, strength, and hope that create a surplus of spiritual resources for all of us. All I did was my best, and I thought that what I had literally "brought to the table" was enough. And just like that, Sister Porter, Bishop Porter, and their family showed all of us, and especially me, that the Lord has so many blessings in store for us that our so much greater than we could ever imagine. We must continue to be better a little each day. When we do this, we are promised blessings - which sometimes may even come as Gummy Bears or Resse's Pieces.