Coming to you from somewhere over Virginia...

Technology is a wonderful thing. Delta and Ebay have teamed up for the holidays to bring their customers free wi-fi. I salute them! Here I sit at 30,000 feet about the ground (a mere 100 feet about the summit height of Everest) and I am blogging! We are on our way home from a lovely couple of days in Washington D.C.

We went there for the National Conference on Student Leadership. Honestly, it was one of the best conferences that I have ever been to. Almost everything that I heard could be somehow applied to my job. I didn't even skip any sessions (I don't think I have ever been to a conference where I didn't skip at least one session).

Outside of the conference we had a blast! Because time was so short we crammed in as much as we could, as quickly as we could, We saw monuments, memorials, and museums, We went to Arlington Cemetery, the Library of Congress and even sang "I'm just a bill" while we were sitting on Capitol Hill.

My two favorite highlights were these:

On Sunday night I had dinner with my dear friend Erika. She was one of my very favorite mission companions and still one of my very favorite friends. Obviously (as she lives out here) we don't get to see each other much, so it was a great treat to be able to spend some time with her.

The other favorite moment was seeing A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater. The show was great, even though their Ghost of Christmas yet to Come was about the freakiest thing I have ever seen in my life. But after all was resolved, we left brimming with Christmas cheer. It was a perfect way to end the trip and kick off the holiday season!

Overall our trip was a wild success. The Three Musketeers ((or Charlie's Angels) or any other famous threesome you can think of) took on the town and had a wonderful time!

Miss Jennica Goes to Washington

In just two and a half days I am going to be on a plane bound for our nation's capital! Hali and I are heading up a new ambassador program at work and will therefore be attending the National Conference on Student Leadership. It is possible that Lindsay will be coming along for the ride as well. (Shh! Don't tell!) We are more than a little bit thrilled. The Three Musketeers will reunite! None of us have ever been to D.C. and I feeling especially stoked for this trip. D.C. is one of the places that has been on my list of things I didn't think I would ever actually see. (This list continues to get exponentially smaller) Anyway, if you have any suggestions of must sees or must dos, please let me know!

My baby sister is all grown up and married!

My sister is married! We had a wild weekend and by the end I was a DJ, photographer and cake decorator! Good times were had by all!

See pictures below...

Close to home...

Last Saturday night I got a phone call from my mom. She told me that my little sister's marching band had been coming home from Idaho when one of their buses rolled. Luckily, my sister was on the bus in front of the one that rolled, but there were still a lot of injuries and one fatality. Heather Christensen had been the woodwind instructor for the band. The driver of the bus had passed out and Heather got to the front to try to correct the bus before it went off the road. The bus still rolled, but the damage wasn't half of what it would have been if there had been no attempt made to keep the bus on the road. Heather was a hero that night and I am incredibly grateful for that.

Last night the band performed in honor of Heather at their competition. I am pretty sure that everyone in that stadium was in tears. Many of the other bands wore red and black ribbons to show their support. All in all, it was an incredible evening. The band swept the competition, winning 1st place and all of the "Outstanding" awards available in their division. Those students were great and it was amazing to see them come together and perform after such a tragedy.

You can read about it here.

Oh, Hi.

Ok, so it's been a while. A long while. But I have been busy. Very busy. So busy, in fact, that I am at home convalescing. I am 99.9% sure that I have been busy and stressed to the point that my body finally said. "If you do not slow down, I will slow you down." I didn't slow down.

I am taking the GRE in 12 days, my sister is getting married in 14 days, I am taking an Intro to Teaching Seminary class, and I have more to do at work than I have ever had before.

And to top it all off, I now have the cold to end all colds. Well, maybe it isn't that bad, but it feels like it is. Especially when there is so much to be done! I have slept so much in the last 4 days that I am starting to feel like Rip Van Winkle. I have also imbibed an amount of DayQuil that is most likely illegal in at least 7 states. I hope to be back on my feet soon. Until then I am going to go hit the DayQuil again and crawl into bed...

The Countdown Continues...

I leave for my cruise in t-minus 2 days. We will spend 2 lovely days in Seattle and then we will be ON A BOAT!