My favorite things

So, I stole this idea from my fabulous roommate, Shaunzi, but I'm making a list of 50 things I love/50 things that make me happy. Because who doesn't need a reminder of the blessings in their life? Here we go:

1. Late night Dennys/Waffle House/IHOP runs
2. Finding a new favorite song
3. Listening to a native French speaker
4. Staying up late talking to friends
5. The movie trailers before your movie starts
6. Sun-warmed peaches picked right off the tree
7. Pecan orchards
8. A bowl of soup on a cold day
9. Harry Potter World fish and chips
10. Butterbeer
11. Movie soundtracks
12. Driving with the windows down on a summer day, blaring country music on the radio
13. The smell of salt water in a coastal town
14. That moment when you blend your sound perfectly with everyone in the band or orchestra
15. Christmas lights
16. Midnight movie premiers
17. Long hugs
18. The anticipation at the beginning of a rollercoaster
19. Summer thunderstorms with a book
20. Cooking for a big group of people
21. EFY line dances
22. Teaching the Gospel to the youth and seeing the Spirit touch their hearts and change their lives
23. A good text message at the start of the day
24. Mexican food
25. A perfect chocolate chip cookie
26. Finding the perfect Mormon Message for what you need
27. Road trips
28. The sense of adventure with an airplane take-off
29. Starting the Harry Potter books from the beginning again. Each time is as good as the one before
30. The music at the beginning of a movie
31. Baseball games in the late spring, with a hotdog, a Coke, and lots of sunshine
32. Disney movies in French
33. Seeing the Lord's hand in my life
34. Big wrap-around porches on old Southern homes
35. The sound of waves breaking on the beach
36. The old man walking his dog who waves as you drive by
37. Talking for hours with a friend and realizing how much you have in common
38. Reading a whole book in one day because you just can't stop
39. Getting mail, even if it's just a bill
40. Kneaders' turkey bacon avocado sandwich on foccacia
41. Watching Swamp People with my dad
42. Discussing books with my mom
43. Christmas shopping
44. Singing along with *NSYNC
45. Rediscovering an old favorite song
46. Reading on the beach
47. Remembering an old inside joke with a friend
48. Trying a new recipe and having it turn out perfect
49. Listening to someone talk about something they are passionate about
50. The idea of being a mom one day

The best experience of my life

I'm going to EFY again this summer!! And this time, it's for EIGHT weeks. For anyone who doesn't know, Especially for Youth (EFY) is a summer program for teenagers that my church does. Each session is a week long and they have sessions all over the country (and in a few other countries). The youth (who are all 14-18) go to classes on different spiritual topics, have game nights, show off their talents, go to dances, and a ton of other stuff. It's a big opportunity for them to meet other LDS (Mormon) youth and strengthen their testimonies. I went for four years as a teen and last summer I went back as a counselor for three weeks. Each counselor is responsible for a group of 10ish teens of their same gender and then we're paired with a counselor of the opposite gender and our kids make up a company. We teach them devotionals and just take care of any of their needs during the week. It's an exhausting job and you hardly sleep, but it was definitely the best experience of my life. I learned so much from the youth and made some amazing friends out of my fellow counselors. So I applied again this year, and I got the job! However, I'm working way more sessions this year, including a special edition session in Palmyra, New York. So I'll get to visit a lot of Church historical sites, like the Sacred Grove, where God and Jesus Christ visited Joseph Smith, and visit the Palmyra temple! It's going to be the best summer of my life.

Here's some pictures from last year's experience:

 My very first group of girls. They're covered in ice cream in this first picture. Ice cream mountain/Ice cream fight - it's a tradition. I'm not quite sure why the youth enjoy being covered in ice cream so much.

 Same girls, much cleaner. This is before the Friday dance. My co-counselor, Michael, got roses for all of the girls.

Working on their service project.

This is the whole company from that first week - Direct Thy Path

 My girls from the second week. They were the sweetest and I adored them.

 My co-counselor, Mike, with the pyramid of DVDs that we built for check-in.

And the whole company from week 2 - Heaven's Highest

 I loved week 2, because my best friend/roommate Meghan was there as a counselor too! We were EFY roommates when we were teenagers so it was a dream come true for us to come back as counselors.

These ladies, Chelsea and Stefanie, lived in the same building as me in Georgia. We were crazy and had so much fun.

 After Georgia, we were off to Florida, where the campus is GORGEOUS.

 My girls made an amazing banner. The footprints were all done by finger painting. That is not what my finger painting looks like.

 Two of my favorite people in the world - Fabiola and Michael. We went on several adventures to Walmart together during the week. I miss them tons.

 My last company - Divine Mysteries. They might have been the craziest kids I had all summer. Every day with them was an adventure.

The EFY counselors from last summer. I miss them all so much!

Basically, I can't wait to go back.