It's almost New Years!!! Get Excited!

They are just so stinkin' adorable!!! Happy almost New Year's Eve! Find a lucky person to smooch! :)

Christmas festivities!

Chaotic!! If there was one word I could think of that truly described my Christmas at home...chaotic would probably be it. Though, would it really be Christmas without the chaos of my little nieces and nephews ripping open their presents? :) 

With all the rampant children running about, it has been awesome just being at home with my ever-growing family and my closest friends!

 The entire Lam family

 Apparently only a few of us got the funny photo memo haha

 The original Lam fam

 The unmarried siblings :)

Sisters!

Could I have asked for a better Christmas? Nope! I loved every minute of it and every morsel of food...probably loved the food a little too much.  :)

Seriously, she is incredible

um...I wish i could sing like her?

Birthday Mania

So I know it has been basically forever since I last posted. School has basically kicked my butt, and this semester has just kept me busier than ever!


But for those of you who didn't know...my birthday was yesterday! And this past friday, we had a little joint birthday party for me and my good friend Robby at my apartment.  Then to continue the festivities, me and a few awesome people hit up the Cornbelly's cornmaze up at Thanksgiving Point.


Basically it was a blast, so here are a few photos from the best birthday weekend ever!

 Birthday buddies!

Best roommates in the world!

our amazing friend Marcia actually offered to make my birthday cake! Isn't it amazing!!?

Yes, I'm Brooke's baby corn. haha

successfully made it out of the cornmaze alive! 


Save it to say, year 20 is off to a good start!


love you all, and thanks to everyone who came to my party and wished me a happy birthday!

First Things First

There's a FIRST time for everything!

Yesterday was my FIRST day of work at Nu Skin thanks to my favorite asian guy....Thongvun Nak!!

So in honor of my first day, Thongvun graciously offered to go with me on the bus to make sure I knew where to get off and everything. He's basically my hero and the nicest guy in the entire world! Honestly, if he hadn't of come with me, I would have probably gotten lost or attacked by the scary lady who apparently rides the bus at the same time as me every day...ya she's kinda creepy. picture to come of her haha

Me and my awesome bus-mate :)

Today however was a little different.  Instead of riding the bus to the call center for Nu Skin, I had to take the bus to the "highrise" building off state street. So this being my FIRST job in Provo, it was all quite exciting.

I got my FIRST name badge!!!

yup, it was a very exciting day, especially when I found out that I had to have my parents overnight ship my passport to me for insurance reasons or else I'd be fired if I didn't bring it to the office by 5pm tomorrow!  Luckily, after begging my parents and after lots of them yelling at me I was able to convince them to send it to me, and I will just have to shell out the $30 for shipping. Lame I know, but what do they expect!? They told me to get a job and when I finally do they aren't satisfied.  

After that whole thing was settled though, my day got significantly better.  Got to eat pho with some of my fellow co-workers, and I got a ride home on a motorcycle! So I rode 2 different motorcycles in less than 24 hours.  That kinda made me smile a bit :)

Now it's time for class and time to study for my Comms midterm in a couple days!!!! sooo busy!

4th of July Weekend!

So to kick off one of the funnest weekends I've had this summer, me and a few friends headed over to the top of a parking garage for a free outdoor concert! 

Me and one of my best friends Jeff Schwarting :)

Then we of course witnessed some awesome fireworks...that I do no have any pictures of haha

Then on Sunday, me and my lovely roomie went for a little stroll around the Provo Temple grounds after church, just an awesome way to spend the Sabbath. 

Then Monday was the REAL 4th of July...and what may you ask we did?

We hit up a crazy fun fair down Center Street, where we ran into an awesome dinosaur shaped moon-bounce

and then...

LAZER TAG!

our awesome team:

yup that's right, Ashley Tucker, Kelsey Briggs, and Britt Lam...secret: me and Ashley love Hello Kitty, hence the matching shirts we purchased that very day from Walmart!

and we of course kicked butt in the field :)

asian picture!

our serious lazer tag faces

and I just wanted to end on a cute picture of me and Ashley :)

Hope you all had the best weekend and got to set off lots of fireworks!!

Movie Madness fun...ness?

This is Kelsey my best friend...

enjoying a lovely slurpee at the movie theater...for SUPER 8

some of the crew :)

and my favorite picture of the night. Voldemort killing me, and Kelsey looking desperately in love hahaha

all in all, it was pretty much a bomb night

My Favorite Day

SUNDAY

I feel like Sunday is just the day when everything gets better.  No matter how bad your week was, or how hectic your life seems, it all just manages to slow down on Sunday.  Sure I have homework and worries to think about, but after going to church I just get that peace and calmness that I feel the strongest in church with all my friends who are there feeling that same overwhelming spirit.

Sooooo what did I do after those wonderful meetings you may ask?

I dove into a can of the best frosting ever: Rainbow chip

and I read...Number Our Days by Barbara Myherhoff

enjoy your Sunday!

Back in P-Town!

I guess life has been pretty hectic since I've been back in Provo, but I am honestly loving every minute of it!  I moved in last tuesday into my new apartment complex: Enclave Village, and I've honestly never been in such a fun and "happenin" place haha.  And I finally get my own room!!!!

So no crazy decorations yet, but I've only been here a little over a week, so I'm sure they will come :)

And then of course, I was reunited with one of my best friends and roommates: Kelsey Jean Briggs!!!!!

Since we've been back, we've made lots of cool friends like Rockwell, who I call "Rockasaurus," the famous Ben Lee, our dinner group pal Michael Spellman, who is actually sitting next to kels in this picture, but you just can't see him, and of course Bryan Briggs, Kelsey's brother!!!!

We actually threw Bryan an awesome birthday party this past Thursday, fully equipped with bumpin tunes, streamers, balloons, funfetti cake with rainbow chip frosting, basically the whole shabang! We socialized and partied all night!

In other news, classes have been pretty good.  I'm taking Communications101 and Anthropology101, which was originally supposed to be Humanities202, but I chickened out haha.  Not too much work yet, but I'm sure it will get pretty intense! Oh and I also have a job interview with NuSkin this coming Wednesday! wish me luck!

and I completely forgot to mention....

JERUSALEM REUNION!

so before the official reunion and miss Heidi Haglund's house, I was reunited with Cory Newton, Donovan Sanchez, and Spencer Anopol! We hung out, laughed, and ate Brick Oven!

I believe Spencer took the picture of these 2 men plus my lovely roommate, but anyways you get the point! REUNITED AT LAST! 

gosh, so far just loving my time back in Provo with all my friends :)

more pictures to come I promise!

Wait...I went to Peru?

Goodness! In case you guys didn't know, after I returned home from my amazing Jerusalem experience, 3 days later I jetted off again to Peru with my family.  I guess I must have caught a lot of germs or something because I left sick as a dog...not so much fun.  However, Peru was also quite the experience.  Here are some pictures from my amazing adventure!

I found a new passion for photography! I got a brand new camera for this trip, nothing special, but anything would be better than my old camera.  So this is a beautiful cathedral in Lima.

me and my parents in the main square in Lima

yup, my first taste of frozen yogurt after Jerusalem...and it was Pinkberry in Lima!

me and my sister with some cute local kids

Machu Picchu!!!

helping out at a local school, these were my students

just a really cute mother and son photo. the outfit she's wearing is authentic for their specific village

seriously, the sky was blue like this the ENTIRE trip. loved it. this is the village that our tour guide Raul was from

I just thought it was cool to see the stepped structures they used for farming and other agricultural things, while next to this really cool Catholic church

ya, no big deal...just some cow mouths laying around

This was the coolest church building I've ever seen!! it was the branch house on one of the many "floating islands" on Lake Titikaka...yes the islands are actually floating on the lake. AAAAMAZING!

After a little bit of a climb up to one village atop this mountain on Lake Titikaka, I found this sign pointing to the directions of many prominent cities...yes that's right, JERUSALEM is one of those cities. MADE MY DAY!

local village market

We got to eat with these very traditional Incan villagers. VERY COOL

So, better late than never! Definitely a trip to remember :)

this is what i do with my time

Well, if you couldn't tell from my last post...I am missing my friends, especially those who spent the 4 most wonderful months of my life with me. Soo...in part of my youtubing this past week, I made this slideshow as a little ode to that marvelous experience these people and the places we went to helped me have.

ANTSY!!

So I guess it has been quite some time since I've last written.  After Jerusalem I guess my life just didn't seem as interesting anymore!

BUT, I have recently been trying to develop my talents by practicing the guitar like crazy, and you know what, I've even been recording stuff here and there. soooo that's basically what I've been up to. 

main reason for this blog post: 

I CANNOT WAIT TO GET BACK TO PROVO! seriously, ants in my pants, i am THAT excited.  Though life at home has its ups, I cannot express how much I have been missing all of my great and fantastic friends back in provo.  First of all, I have my lovely roommates that I can't even believe I've been gone from for this long, and secondly, I have all of my lovely Jerusalem friends that I have been feeling quite disconnected from lately. 

so yes...it is time to get back.

1. pick a date

2. buy a plane ticket

3. done and done

yay, I'll be returning to my great school and wonderful friends in 6 short days! (in case you can't do the math, that means i'll be getting to Utah on June 14th)

o happy day :)

From Beginning to End

O Jerusalem, if I forget thee

These past 4 months have been a complete whirlwind.  And I guess this is my last post from this Holy Land.  It has given me so many fun times, amazing memories, and the greatest friends I could have ever asked for.  As I prepare to leave for home today, my heart is sooooo full of love for this amazing place, but it isn't just the place that made this experience so special.  If it weren't for all of the people living within the city, especially at the Jerusalem Center with me, I don't think that I would have grown nearly as much as i did both mentally and spiritually.  Each of these brilliant and radiant beings have blessed and touched my life so much, and there is no way that I will forget this life-changing experience.

And that's the thing isn't it.  This experience has changed my life, and with these changes, I hope to sustain them so that I might grow even further and never look back.  Jerusalem has changed me for good.

Where it all began: one of my first weeks at the JC (aka Mormon University)

our weekly humanitarian projects in the garage!

fond memories like being at the Jordan River with Raquel and AJ

being silly with my partner in crime Raquel...we were pretty much the best refs ever!

yes...those are lamb heads...plus my head :(

tender moments with Martin in the Christian Quarter of the Old City

outside the beautiful building we got to call home for the last 4 months with Skyler

o the glorious headsets! yes...we wanted to chuck them off tels...."ALL POW!"

Palm Sunday walk with Abby Chaimb!

One of the greatest things that we were blessed with this past week..well this whole trip, was when Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came to stay with us here at the center.  We were fortunate enough to have a fireside with him and talk to him one on one.  He truly is an apostle called of God, inspired by the Holy Ghost.  Everything that he spoke to us about was an answer to my prayers and all my questions.  Basically, BEST week ever!

outside the lovely Oaysis, where we eat our yummy JC meals...this week with Elder Holland!

And where better to end than at one of my favorite places here: the Dome of the Rock, the same location where the temple of Herod once stood, the temple where Christ our Lord and Savior once stood and taught.

Jerusalem, if I forget you...