Everything Has Changed (?)

You know those times in life where you can feel everything in your world is about to change? You know the why and can see it coming—even can put a date on it at times—but you can in know way predict the extent of the change, speed it up, or slow it down. Instead, you feel you are resigned to sit back and wait for the avalanche to hit.

Or is that only me?

There have been numerous times where I can feel this of  type change approaching—almost as if it is in the very air I breathe, demanding my attention.

Three years ago last week I graduated from High School! (woot woot) I remember leaving the school for the last time with all of my friends, knowing the hours and hours over the years I had spent there were at their close. The nights of fall football games that brought the school together (even if we were never very good…), the classic dance planning and dress searching, the lunch hour after lunch hour spent working on ceramic sculptures, the times between class and after school on the “senior bench” with friends just hoping you get to talk to a certain special someone, the seemingly constant preparing for AP tests (“now THIS is a great AP question!”), joining club after club to look good on college resumes (now I KNOW I am not the only one who did that), Monday lunchtime seminary council meetings, and of course the never ending project of creating the greatest yearbook Viewmont has ever seen (shout-out to myself for designing the cover); my time in High School was well spent and well loved. Not to mention the time I spent outside of school with “the gang” aka the greatest group of friends I could have asked for. But even with all those memories and special moments, I could sense it ending. I could feel it was over--now only be revisited in my mind or in pictures. I just could not foresee what exactly would replace it.

“College” was just a word to me. It meant more school and living away from home and trying to be an adult. But even all of that was hard to fully grasp. It is only now that I have spent as much time in University as I did in High School that I can see the changes college made in me and my life.

Almost two years ago I packed up my life and moved across the pond to England. I remember sitting on the plane after saying goodbye to my parents early in the morning and just thinking “WAIT. What am I doing???” I knew that studying abroad would change me. It would change my life and how I saw the world and who I was in it. I just could not see how it would and what experiences would lead me through that change.

Here I am, five days away from arguably the biggest change of my life.

I am marrying my best friend for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. I know this event is going to change everything in my life—including myself—but I cannot know how. I can put a date and even a time on it, but the how.. The how evades me once again. These moments of approaching change are always special to me. It gives me time to self-reflect and evaluate where I am and who I am in that moment, so as to better compare & contrast in the changes to come. 

So let me tell you who I am right now, because in five days I will be a different person with a different name living a very different life, never to return to this one. 

My name is Aimee. 

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and I love my Savior very much.

I am a nursing student with a passion for people and creativity. 

I love watercolors, florals, and anything gold. 

I think Anthropologie's dishes are perfect. 

I always wish I was swimming. 

If possible, I would probably choose to live off of salads, fresh peaches, gyros, and indian food. Oh, and smoothies. 

My favorite snack is an apple with peanut butter and graham crackers. 

I like to run; bake cinnamon rolls and applesauce cookies; and visit street markets, arts museums, ancient ruins, libraries, and parks.

My family is my best friends. 

My idea of a perfect afternoon is a bike ride and picnic in the park. 

England holds a part of my heart and is one of my homes. 

My grandparents are my heroes, and when I grow up I hope to be just like my mom.
I will love you forever if you scratch my back. 

I have had 27 roommates, and I am pretty sure they have all been better than yours. 

I would cut off both my pinky toes to see Adele in concert. 

I enjoy school, and if I have free time you will find me reading (probably Harry Potter). 

I love a boy named Austin.   

There you go! That's who I am right now. I will write again in a month and tell you who I am then. I hope to find myself with a greater understanding of my role in God's plan, more patience with myself and those around me--especially those closest to me, and even more love for my boy named Austin. 

Love Always, Aimee 

 

then & now. 

There's No Place like Home for the Holidays

Why is it that the cliche is always true?

Leaving London was perhaps one of the hardest and most heartbreaking things I have done. But the saying 'there's no place like home for the holidays' hit home (pun definitely intended) this year. 

Oh, and don't even get me started on Michael Bubble's 'I'll be Home for Christmas' song. It might have almost turned on my waterworks on an occasion or two. 

The holiday season is about our Savior's miraculous birth and beautiful life and the only place I would want to be this time of year is with the people He made it possible for me to spend forever with. 

Kicked off the month with a trip the the MoTab's stellar Christmas concert feat. the Muppets

#sharetheGift

These are my favorite fools to hang with and Temple Square is my favorite place to hang. Put the two together and you have my favorite night of the year!

(I don't think I brought enough chocolate home with me.) 

Just DD giving Minnie some love in her Santa costume.

The Christmas Miracle occurred about midnight Christmas Eve when the snow started to fall after many hours of waiting and hoping. We had a white Christmas after all! It was perfect.

Stay up until 2:30 am playing Settler's and Mario Kart? 

Count me in. Every. Time.

(p.s. yes; I won settler's. destroyed, actually.)

sometimes we are dysfunctional at the photo taking game.

But those are the ones I love the most.

I spent my free time doing two of my favorite things this holiday:

baking and reading.

It was glorious.

A hundred cinnamon rolls done one day,

a thousand pages turned the next.

That sounds like a perfect holiday to me!

Have I ever mentioned my Anthropologie addiction before? No?

Oh. Well, I am fairly certain that me and the Home Decor/Kitchenware section of that store are kindred spirits. The issue in our relationship occurs when I remember that I am poor college student.. BUT. CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT PIE DISH AND ROLLING PIN??

I have been in love with them for some time now and when I stopped in the day after Christmas I got them on a screaming deal. We are talking $30 for the set. 

*cue jaw dropping*

I know, right?

(to give you a relative idea, the pie dish alone is normally $36).

Way too excited to get my own kitchen and beautiful dishes sometimes <3

When I wasn't reading or baking, we were all playing games. One night Charlie just could not take it anymore. He wanted that popcorn so bad, his face was hilarious. He kept creeping closer and closer and when I didn't stop him he would get a little closer until he finally just laid down and stretched is tongue out to eat it. That dog. 

(To be fair, I did strategically place that popcorn in a temptation zone for him..)

We also finally broke out my Harry Potter Monopoly. It is so cute! I love it. 

After a crazy turn of events me and my mom ended up owning the whole board and all the money.

So yeah; it was a good game. 

Definitely a Christmas Holiday to remember spent with the people I love most celebrating the best things in life; our Savior, this lovely world, loads of laughs, and each other's company. 

I hope your season was merry and bright! Mine most certainly was.

Love Always, Aimee

A Harry Potter Halloween

A little late in the game, but here is a run-down of Halloween as promised!
Here's how it went:

After class (and an mid-term exam, mind you) Me, Zoe, and Lauren went to the empty apartment flat by our professors and made around two hundred pumpkin cookies. That is correct: approximately two zero zero cookies. It took us a fair amount of time between the hand mixing and quadrupling the recipe and baking sheet after sheet and after sheet in only one oven... It was a process. Even getting the ingredients was a bit of a struggle. The pumpkin came from a wonderful American family in my ward who brought it back from the states for me! Talk about coming in clutch (they also brought me real gum, so truly they are just the most wonderful people). It turns out chocolate chips and spices are not a normal grocery store item...? In what world, right? But we found some at Wholes Foods and all was well.

perks of making cookies in the empty flat?
climbing out the window four stories up. (it's what all the cool kids do)

What do we do while cookies are baking, you ask?
Psch. Easy.
Dance to One Direction of course.

Did I mention this Halloween was London's RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE? 75 degrees and sunny. 

Following the cookie baking extravaganza, Me and Ellen made a quick trip to our much beloved Chipotle because they were offering TWO POUND BURRITOS to anyone who came in costume on Halloween! I'm sorry. Two pound Chipotle burritos? I'm willing to pay ten so we obviously had to go take advantage for dinner. Chipotle is sort of our saving grace here.. England just does not do Mexican food and we all deeply miss it at times. At least, we deeply missed it until we discovered that Starbucks and Subway were not the only America food chains here. Three cheers to Chipotle and their blessed grilled chicken burrito!

After dinner came the actual party. Now, living in London with 40 students who all happen to also love Harry Potter, there really was only one option for a Halloween party: Harry Potter (obvi). We each got on Pottermore (the website designed by JK Rowling) and took the 'sorting quiz.' Then we dressed in our house colors/other costumes and competed for the house cup! It was so so fun. Emotions definitely were running high as the points got closer and closer.. We played a couple classic team games, like get the Oreo from the centre of your forehead to your mouth with no help or hands, and then finished with Harry Potter Trivia.
Talk about intense.. Haha the best part was definitely seeing the different house personalities coming out as we played. Slytherin's were dressed in black, intense, slightly snarky (esp. towards Gryffindor), and had a touch of sass and pride to them. Gryffindor's were loud, full of team pride, competitive, and always a little too into the game. Ravenclaw's remained cool and collected, always knowing the answers and maintaining their ground. Hufflepuff's were just laughing, not really caring about the score, and some looked slightly confused as to what was going on. It was epic. What else would you do if you lived at school in London??

Our awesome Centre facilitators 

 

 

After some calculating and final awarding of points, it was determined that Gryffindor did indeed win the house cup. (Please appreciate that we came from the bottom and knocked out Slytherin for it, just like the books/movies..)

Gryffindor, Gryffindor, GRYFFINDOR
**cheering voice/table banging**

At the end of the games we brought out the cookies and they were devoured within minutes. Seriously, with all the grabbing that went down you would think it was the Hunger Games or something. Or a bunch of high school boys, not college girls.. But I guess that just means they were good, right? **this is where everyone bows down to me for slaving away at them**

champions of the cooking making

Following the party everyone sort of split up to whatever; I spent some time dancing with a group in the front room, helping a few carve a pumpkin, and trick or treating to the professor's flats.

Harry and Hermione? 

After party festivities: Pumpkin Carving! 

All in all, it was honestly one of my favorite Halloweens so far. Full of all of my favorite things: pumpkin cookies, baking, grilled chicken burritos, Harry Potter, and good times with the best friends.

Love Always, Aimee

I'm Harry. Harry Potter.

 

 

Me: "Wait. Why are we holding pumpkins?"
Laur: "It's Halloween; just go with it"