Senegal

This past term at school, I (Billy) was able to participate in the Thunderbird Emerging Markets Laboratory (TEM Lab).  It's a really neat program my school has where they send students out to developing countries to do some kind of project relevant to our studies.

I went with two other students to Senegal where we worked with four different organizations with Winrock for the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer program.  The overall goal was to help each organization form partnerships, so we helped them learn what they could offer in a partnership and what to look for in potential partners.  We also helped identify potential partners and got some initial meetings started for them.

It was a really awesome experience!  We were able to do great work for each organization and I learned a lot along the way.  I had fun with my teammates, Colin and Mohamed, and I got to experience a different culture.  Most of our work was in the capital city, Dakar, but one week we were about 100 km north of Dakar just outside of a city called Mboro.  It was a bit more rural out there.  Here are a bunch of photos from my trip.

Our first meeting with the president from the first organization we worked with.

Goree Island

Meeting with the second organization we worked with.

Our training session with the third organization we worked with.

One of the many crazy looking moths that were attacking us at night while we were working.

The African Renaissance Monument.

The Pink Lake

Meeting with our fourth organization and a business partner organization.

Cool Senegalese clothes our first organization gave to us at the end of our trip.

Western-most point of Africa

After our presentation at Thunderbird with our faculty advisers.

Thanksgiving

I got to go home for Thanksgiving this year!  I got to fly down there so I wouldn't have to do the drive myself since Billy was gone.  I got to be there Tuesday night through Saturday night.  It was such a fun week!

Tuesday when I got there we just played a game as a family which was super fun.  Wednesday my mom and I went for a run and then we did some shopping woop!  Wednesday night my parents treated us all to Island's for dinner!  Yummmmm but apparently I missed the best part since I didn't order a dessert that is the best thing on earth, according to Jody.  So I guess we'll have to go back ;)

Cody was really good at taking the selfie...not

I have like 12 of these on my phone

Amazing

Got one!  Jayce cracks me up with that beast hat.  And dad with his little dish.  hahaha

 Thursday was Thanksgiving!  We went for a turkey trot in the morning which was a walk to Canyonside park and a run back through the canyon, then we got ready and made food/watched football.  I read a little bit.  We went over the Haws' for dinner.  I don't have any pictures, but it was a fun day!

Friday Mom and I ran 6 miles!  Then I got ready and went out to lunch with Jen!  It was so fun!  We ate at this place on the beach in Solana Beach called Las Olas and it was really good and fun.  It was great catching up with her.  Her mom took a picture of us so I need to get that from her.  Jen is preggers so it was fun to hear about all that and potential names, etc. as well as just catch up on her life!  We are really funny because we never talk to each other really but we always get together when we're home and it's always a good time.  Love having a good friend like that!

Did a little shopping in the afternoon/evening then watched a movie at night.  Saturday my mom and I went and did yoga on the beach in Pacific Beach!  It was so cool, and surprisingly difficult.  I got a good workout!  It's a free class that happens every Saturday and Sunday.  It was way fun.  We went for smoothies and bagels afterwards.

Our view...wish we were in front

LOVE THIS PLACE

After yoga I got packed up and ready to go and we had to go to the airport pretty soon after that.  We brought Penny in the car to the airport and Cody kept saying "Why did we bring her again?" because she was being really whiny and hilarious.

CODY LOVES PENNY

She's skiing on his hands

Once I got back into town I grabbed a couple things out of my suitcase, left the rest and drove down to Queen Creek at like 9:30 at night!  Jenny was there with her kids and they were still up so it was super fun to see them!  I spent the night on the couch and hung out there the next day basically eating and chatting the whole day which was so fun.  Billy got home that evening so I drove to the airport around 7 and picked him up!  It was such a fun reunion!  I wanted to take a picture of him walking down the ramp but I was totally distracted obviously so I didn't.  It was weird being back together, like he had never been gone but also it felt like I hadn't seen him in like a year.  Weird.  It is so nice having him back though!

What a fun Thanksgiving!  Now I just CAN NOT wait for Christmas to get here!  Only 7 more school days until Christmas break!

OH and some exciting news, Billy interviewed for a part time teaching job at my school (teaching AP Psychology) and today he got it!  So he'll be doing lots and lots of driving next semester and be super duper busy but it will be fun having him share my teaching world with me.  He is excited and I think my boss really liked him (who wouldn't?) so I'm excited about it.  Billy is also prepping his final semester at Thunderbird and figuring out his last classes ever!  It is so exciting to think about where we will be next year, but also kind of sad.  We really love this area and this ward, really everything about it, so I'll be really sad to leave it.  Maybe he'll try to get a job here, who knows.  Exciting times ahead!

October and November updates

Sooooooo I haven't blogged in forever.  Sorry bout that.  I have the blogger bug tonight though so I'm hoping to get some things recorded.

Billy was gone for 5 weeks in Senegal (Africa) starting October 24th ish I think and that sucked.  Haha but really it did.  The good thing about it was that I got to hang out with lots of fun people because people felt bad for me!  Yay!

The week before Halloween was really fun at school.  It was spirit ween so I got to dress up as something different everyday.  I decided to be Elsa for Halloween since I have that blue prom dress.  I wish I chose something different though because I had to keep explaining who I was and I could NOT breathe in that dress.  Plus I took way too long putting my make-up on in the morning.  It was fun though.

All the Disney characters at school

My mom came out the weekend of Halloween and we ran a half marathon together on Halloween morning!  My friend Kristy from work ran it with us too.  It was a really fun race!  My hips were super sore after though which was weird.

After the half marathon my mom and I had a good time together.  It was really fun having her on my turf.  I got to show her all our spots.  We went to lunch, got pedi's, did a little shopping, ate Chipotle and watched a movie.  She came to church with me on Sunday but then had to leave after church.  Such a fun weekend!  Thanks again Mom for making it happen!

After that the month of November was pretty low key.  I hung out with Jody and her kiddos a LOT (thanks Jody!) because she was so nice and always invited me over there!  I also watched a LOT of TV and ate a LOT of junk.  Bad bad moves on my part.  It's tough being alone, ok?!?!

Saw a lot of this screen.  If you are an avid TV watcher like we are, you know it well.  Ugh I hate it.

This was also one of my besties while Billy was gone:

Did some social stuff too.

Went hiking with my friend Heidi White one Saturday up Camelback

Later that same day I went down to QC for lunch at Smashburger (YUM) and a movie with Jody!  Taylor's tongue!  hahaha!

One weekend was our Mustang Stampede, the first annual BASIS Ahwatukee 5k.  It was really fun but everyone kept putting pressure on me to be the fastest/best so I was stressing.  I was also getting sick so I was not in my best shape.  I ran super hard though and finished in 2nd place, behind one of the teacher's daughter who is in high school (trying to make myself feel better for not getting 1st ;) )  It was a tough race, I was dying during it.

Kristy, Helen, me

Saturday arcade games forcing this cutie to love me.  He is always resistant but I know he loves me deep down.

Froyo after the arcade game playing

Cute note Maddison wrote me on one of my visits down to QC

Another weekend I also got to hang out with my long lost friend Sharley!  I went over to her house for dinner one night because they just moved to Mesa from Denver.  It was so fun chatting with her and playing with her new little baby, Jack!  I don't think I've seen her in like 3 years!  Or more!

After a loooooooong 5 weeks Billy finally got back on November 29!!  It is so nice having him back.  He missed Thanksgiving, but that's ok because he'll be here for Christmas!  He is working on a Senegal blog post so that will be coming your way pretty soon.

Girls weekend with Cami and Rifka!

This week has been my Fall Break!!!!!!  YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!  I was talking to Cami in March when I went to Oregon about doing another girls weekend here, and so we planned it a while ago.  It was so fun having those girls here!  I'm lucky I have such great cousins!  We had a blast.

Cami got in Saturday morning.  Rifka was already in town but she was hanging out with her brother and sis in law for the weekend.  We picked Cami up and went to breakfast at Snooze cafe...yummmm!!

"Accidental" selfie

My breakfast was SO GOOD!  I can't stop thinking about it.  Strawberry shortcake pancake and a pineapple upside down pancake!  Yummmmmmmmmy

After breakfast we went home and kind of chilled.  We watched the afternoon session of conference which was really good.  We got to hear Elder Holland speak about women which was a much needed talk for me to hear.  It was great.  Afterwards we went to the grocery store and then made homemade chili and cornbread.  It was delish!  After eating we watched some Parks and Rec waiting for Billy to get home from Priesthood session.  Once he got home we went to the haunted corn maze up in Glendale!  It was SO scary but SO fun!  We made Billy stay in the front the whole time and Cami and I were just grabbing each others arms so tight...it was hilarious.  We were both pretty sweaty by the end because we had been so close and so scared.

Hanging out with the scary guys

Goats.  This maze is literally on a farm.

Getting some massive air on the bouncy thingy at the corn maze!

Billy flying toward me like a crazy eagle

We were so parched after we stopped for some water...aren't you so glad I captured this moment?

Sunday we woke up and made waffles, strawberries, and whipped cream for conference!!!!!  I love conference weekend.  In the afternoon we headed over to Bruce and Karen's for the afternoon session, some pool time, dinner, bike ride, photography lessons for Cami, and a couple rounds of nines.  It was a fun day!!

Maddison and Ceci were super into their conference candy game they got to play.  Love their faces here.

Cami and I went for a bike ride and got to see an awesome sunset.  I am all about sunsets!!  My butt is still SO sore from the ride though...yikes

Artsy fartsy shot of our bikes

Sunday night we picked up Rifka for the rest of the party!  Monday I decided it would be fun to go to Sedona even though it had a forecast of rain.  We drove there in the morning and went strait to the devil's bridge hike.  It was gorgeous as usual, but it started to pour rain on our way down!  Ahh!!  After devil's bridge we went and walked around the town, then it started raining again so we went into Starbucks and got some hot chocolate and hung out there for a while until the rain subsided.  We decided a second hike might not be a good idea since it was still supposed to rain the rest of the day, so we headed home after that.  We ended the night with Cafe Rio at home, a visit to the hot tub (which we found in a secret corner of our apartment complex, it was so pretty!) tons of candy and watching Cinderella :)

Christmas store

Hanging out in starbucks...me looking like a scary turtle

CANDY STASH

Movie watching positions

Tuesday we got up early and me, Billy, and Cami went for a nice little jog.  Then we got ready and got pedicures and then went to the mall for a bit!  Afterwards we went for paddle boarding round 3!!!  This was an awesome time paddle boarding except for the rain.  We got to see lots of horses, some bald eagles, and a seriously killer sunset.  It was perfect!  We stopped at in-n-out on the way home for dinner and yummm that sounds so good and I want it right now.  Picture overload from paddle boarding as usual.

Bald eagles

We saw a dead horse :(  it was very sad, I wanted to cry

Spotted some horses!  We ditched our boards and walked to get closer

 

I took soooooo many pictures of the horses...not sure why I took so many

 

Dat sky tho

Another horse encounter...this one crossed right in front of us

I got kind of artsy fartsy with my pics

Awesome sky!!

 

 

I could NOT get enough of this sky!!

Yummmmmm!

After in-n-out we went home, hot tubbed it up some more, and then played N64 Mario Kart!  We were so tired after that we hit the hay!  Wednesday morning we went for a little walk in the morning to the hole in the rock in Papago Park.  Me and Billy have been meaning to go see this for a while.  It wasn't that cool, but it was fun to get out and moving in the morning.

After that we had to take Rifka to the airport and Cami to go have breakfast with her old roommate :(  It was such a fun trip ladies!!  Thanks so much for coming out!!!!