to change the place or position of

as with what happened in the last post, i am doing something i have never done before. im moving. just me. im packin all my stuff up and skippin town. its hard to figure out exactly how i feel about it. there are so many things on my mind.

im excited about:
-going to school that will be so different than humboldt (aka everyone wont be stoned.)
-being with people that believe what i do
-i get to live away from home
-i can stay up as late as i want
-i'll be closer to some siblings
-no more humboldt weather
-snow
-mountains

some things im nervous about:
-going to school with people that are so different than humboldt
-i'll be with people that believe what i do
-i wont be at home
-i wont be sent to bed
-i'll be ferther away from some siblings
-no more humboldt drizzle
-no los begals
-no ocean
-no humboldt branch
-no dad singing in the morning
-no raya

yes things are going to be different and new. but that is one thing you cant change- change itself. its going to happen no matter what you do. but i have decided to make the best of it. being at home the past year and a half has been the best thing i could have done. i know who i am and no one is going to change that. im ready to learn something new.

a milestone

over thanksgiving, i had the opportunity to do something i now believe everyone should do at some point in their lifetime. i went to a drop zone in florida, signed away my life with a pen, got on a jumpsuit, got on a plane, and when the door opened, we were at 1300 feet. my heart beat faster than ever as i heard the buckles snap behind me and i was strapped to randy. within 10 seconds, we were strapped together, i had my goggles on and my sister rachel had disappeared with the biggest smile on her face i had ever seen. we moved to the edge of the door and i pressed my head back into randys shoulder and he said "here we go are you ready?" it didn't matter if i was ready, there was no turning back at this point. before i knew what had happened, we did a back flip out the door and were falling over one hundred and twenty miles an hour through the sky. it was clear above the patchy clouds and for that minute of freefall, i was invincible. nothing in the world had a hold of me and i was free with the wind blowing through my hair. at about 8000 feet, randy pulled the chute. we were flying- well falling with style;) he gave me the straps that you pull to steer and we twirled and twisted all the way to the ground. it was the most amazing thing i have done in my whole life. i would do it again in a heart beat.

vacation..i lost count

rachel gave us a tour of the airborne headquarters at fort bragg where she is stationed. we are such dorks.
the sunsets are amazing here on the east coast when its clear. its cold too!!

southern churchs....

this is the building in fayetteville where the slave trade was. it was the slave trade capital of the country. so much history in all of this.

vacation. day two

miriam jukes took me to the airport. i got there at 10 am and checked on bag and went through security. my flight to vegas was delayed an hour... then an hour and a half... then two hours. what was supposed to happen was jared fly to vegas from salt lake, i fly to vegas from sac then take the same flight from vegas to north carolina. i wasnt going to make the connection that day, jared was, i was tired, i didnt have a sweater, the smoothie i got was gross... it was a hard afternoon. long story short- i got jareds flight switched to the one i would be on the next morning so we would be stuck in vegas together instead of me being suck in sac alone and he make it to north carolina. it was crazy. i didnt end up taking off from sac until almost 3.

so jared and i met up in vegas and spent the night there. i had never been there so jared and i walked the strip. it was on of the coolest places i have ever been!! in one night i felt like i had seen half the world.

france

rome

new york

italy

freaking Nicholas Cage!!

Bond. James Bond.

i planned on taking this one myself but some drunk guy walking by offered to take it for us. some other guy asked us if we were married. vegas is like no other place.

that evening in vegas was tons of fun. we were stuck there with nothing but our computers and the clothes we has on. we were pretty gross by the time we were back east. but it was really fun to spend that time with jarry. hes an awesome big bro.

vacation. day one

miriam and i drove to sacramento to stay with her mom and sister for the night. she was so nice to do that for me. youre a life saver miriam!!

my latest project

so i wouldnt say that i am the craftyest person i know but this time around i must say that i am pretty proud of myself. these two elders have been serving in our branch for a few months and they are way awesome. i made these books for them cuz elder allen died this transfer. i worked on them for about a week and they turned out so cool. there were pictures and letters in there from people in the branch. the books were golden. they loved them.




my room was a mess for a few days but it was so worth it. this was after i had picked up a little bit.

news...

so everyone. just soi can put this out there so everyone will know.

i applied to BYU-I and i got accepted.

i dont know when im going exactly yet but i will be leaving humbodlt in january none the less. im way excited about it and i cant wait for the adventure!!!

just so ya'll know! i love ya'll a ton!

fern canyon

on monday, i went with some folks from the branch and a bunch of elders to fern canyon on their pday. it ended up being 4 guys from the branch, 10 missionaries and me. ya. me and 14 guys. pretty much awesome. has never happened and will probably never happen again. it was one of the funnest trips i have had in a long while. i skipped a class and rescheduled a student and man it was worth it!

this is elder hilton and elder allen who are currently serving in the branch. hilton is from north carolina and allen is from alabama. they are both zome leaders and really good missionaries. it may appear that they are just chillin on this here low hangin log but really...

...they were way up there!

this is me with david luna from the branch and seven of the ten missionaries. i think they got a little more wet than they are supposed to but thats kind of hard to help. if you have ever been to fern canyon you would know why.

here is elder bell who serves in arcata, eldon from the branch, and elder allen in the back of daryls truck drivin back to the other cars. since i was the only girl, i got the front seat!! all the other guys rode in the back of teh truck.

sometimes, there are no words... pretty much just awesome.

current life without a cell phone

last night, we were all talking about how i dont have a cell phone and after a while mom said that i should blog about it because she thinks its hilarious how i write. thats probably cuz i write like i talk and i have no grammer and im a nutcase. story of my life, i swear. so even though i am way behind on posting some pictures (which i have some good ones so get ready. they are AWESOME) i am going to tell you about how bad this has really gotten.

so i have gone without a cell phone for about five months now and its gotten pretty bad. people can never get a hold of me. rachel is always calling me and telling me who tryed to call her looking for me. the house phone is the only way to get a hold of me. well so i thought but ill tell you about that later. if someone leaves a message with someone here, it never gets to me cuz im never here and when i am, everyone forgets. i am guilty of forgetting messages too so if i know the phone isnt for me, i just dont answer it.

if someone leaves a message on the machine, i dont get it until three days later. heres why. they leave the message one day, mom checks it the next day while listening to the other 80 thousand messages on the nachine and writes on the white board "naomi you have some messages." i, of course, dont see that til two days later and then ask mom what its all about. the messages are on the machine. ....*long drawn-out napolean sigh*... so i then have to go through those 80 thousand messages on the machine myself to listen to the three that are for me.

the other night i stayed at the cherrys house, thinking that i would be away from it. but no. i called mom about 6 to tell her that i was staying over at the cherrys. becca and i were out doing stuff and got back at about 9:15. there was one message on the cherrys answering machine. sister cherry played it and i happened to be in the room. it was a lady named ester. i thought hey thats the name of the mom of one of my cello students. but after listening further, it was actually HER! she wanted to change the time of her sons lesson the next morning and needed to get a hold of me. she had called my house and mom knew i was at the cherrys so she gave her the cherrys number! MY LIFE! what am i going to do with myself!! like she called the cherrys- whatever- but for some reason im thinking why is she calling me here?! whaa!

i think that was when i knew that i really needed to make a more forward effort to get a phone of my own.

and hey! here it is! dad made phone calls about how much and stuff and im gunna get one! this week... i hope. dad and i are never home at the same time so good luck with that i guess. but life will soon be a little easier with a cell phone. mom and dad wont have to wonder where i am and i can call my sisters whenever i want!!! yessssss. yes my life is definitly about to be much better.

disneyworld in orlando, florida

disneyworld pretty much the most wonderful place i have ever been on my whole life. i knew that i would like disneyworld cuz i absolutly love everything about disney. i cant believe that i actually went. we just had a chance to go for a day and we hardly saw anything but it was worth it. we had the chance of getting into the park for free. my sister has connections. i dont know how my sisters let me go out in public in that outfit. it was hot out and i just put on clothes that seperate were cool so i put them all on and then i looked hot!! *wink*

the guys 'bat pod'

my brothers roommate aaron has this little motorbike and its the coolest thing in the world. jared and aaron totally love the new batman movie so they call this sucker the bat pod. it was so fun to ride!!!

some things we have been doing

this is the tandam bike that miriam and comendiered from the outdoor store!! well we just took it for a test run but saying we took it sounded cool. we rode it around the back parking lot and found a random guy to take our picture! it was way fun.

miriam and i were going to go take a hike up to bridal veil falls but the road was closed due to some fires that were going on up there. so instead, we went to nunns park up provo canyon and sat by the creek for a while. there were a lot of bugs but we were there long enough to get this way cute picture!

ok coolest shoes in the world!! and even better they have my stinkin name on them!! miriam diana and i got dressed up to go to a mission reunion sort of thing. we had ice cream and played some games and we looked awesome. we all wore dianas shoes cuz she had a ton and they were smokin hot.



this was up lookin good in our new american eagle jeans that we got for 25 bucks each on sale!! oh ya. we only go for the good buys. and i still cant believe i wore heels with jeans. i never do that but i think every once in a while. it looked way cute!!!

so we are at the denver airport. we flew from salt lake this morning and we're waiting for our flight during our 2 and a half hour layover. but theres internet!! i am currently sitting in a nice comfortable chair doin the blogging and miriam is sitting next to me going through her recipts with earphones that are stretched from my computer. just to give you a visual. hope everyone is doing well. we miss california already!

the 'start' of our adventure

Here we go. Miriam and i started on our adventure monday morning. we took cebre along to drop her off with cassy in sacramento. in williams, there were some mexican boys with a stand of watermelons. we decided to stop and get one cuz we knew that it would totally make their day. we did so and as we drove away, they all yelled to us that they wanted our numbers and proceeded to yell their numbers to us. it was so funny. we definatly were the highlight in their day.

this is us three-cebre, miriam, and me. this was in auburn where we dropped cebre off. it was rediculously hot. for us humboldt girls, 97 is pushing it.

and here it is. this is what happened when we started climbing the mountains up toward truckee. we broke down on the side of the road the first time. the car made a clicking sound and when we pulled over the car had overheated. we got some water for it and after driving another 15 minutes up the road, we limped into a gas station and the car had overheated again. the nerve! that was about 2:30pm and it wasnt until 6 that we were finally saved. between 2:30 and 6, we had made so many phone calls that we wanted to throw our phone off a cliff.(not seriously mom, its her phone.)
sister cherrys sister in law drove from lincoln(north of sac) to rescue us. she drove all the way out there to get us. she took us home and fed us and put us up. she was so awesome. she saved our lives!!
Jared drove out to get us on tuesday, picked us up at about 6 and then we drove all the way back to salt lake. we didnt get home until 4:30am on wednesday. it was one of the most crazy things i think i have been a part of.
after getting to car back to the airport rental place, packing all our stuff into the house, and getting settled down we finally went to sleep at 6:15am. we had to get up at 9:30am to go to provo for miriams interview at the MTC. we were running on not very much juice. we are insane but man this is going to make the best story later...
"hey remember that one time we tried to drive all the way to utah on almost no sleep and broke down? then in three days got less than about 5 hours a night? good times."
"remember that one time we went on that date that jared set us all up on and it ended up being a huge flop and half the girls flaked and we ended up watching 'the gods must be crazy' instead of boarding the canyon?"
"remember that one time when we were staying in provo with jared, we decided at 2 in the morning that we wanted to go out and lay in the parking lot and watch the stars and didnt come back in until 3:30?"
"remember when we drove for 20 minutes around orem looking for the jamba juice before realizing that it was in provo then decided instead we would get ice cream from the gas station?"
"remember jareds roommate had the sweetest motor bike in the world and went to put gas in it just so we could ride it around the parking lot? good good times."
"remember we went shopping in provo and got matching american eagle jeans and scored them for 25 bucks each!!?!? yeeeahh!!"
"this one time we were walking to the campus post office and we went by a shop that had a tandum bike and we asked the guys if we could test ride it and they totally said yes. miriam was nice enough to let me drive. one of the best bike rides of my life!!! and we had a random guy take a picture of us!! awesome..."

this was the on the walk that we took at monicas house when we had to wait all day for jared to drive out to get us. we were feeling a little cooped up in the house so we went on a walk in our pjs and our stylin' glasses!!! it was sweet!!!

JAN YODELING!!!

Ok here it is!!!!! I got Jan on tape yodeling. We were all laughing so hard when she did this. I have so much more respect for her now my goodness!!!!

jazz camp and an update

I went to see the Wilkenlohs on my way to be counselor at a Jazz Camp in Mount Shasta. i hadn't seen them since the last summer. Way too long! We went and saw a movie and stayed up late watching "That Thing You Do" and eating 2 foot long otter pops! The best of times I'll tell ya.

This is what I got to see for an hour while driving from the wilkenlohs til I got to Weed. It was so beautiful.

This is Kelly and Justin- the other two counselors. You cant exactly see Justin but i tryed. We became really good friends and had a blast. It was so much fun.

These are the people that were running/in charge of the camp. Jared Voss was the Choreographer, Andy Shelden was the Camp Director, (skip the little girl) Rodger Emmerson was one of the vocal directors, Greg Jasperse was the other vocal director who came from out of town, and last was Jan who was our pianist. She helped with sectionals and stuff. She was hilarious. I have a video of her yodeling for us. I'll try to get it on here. It was so funny.

This is a bunch of us. Camp was so fun and I made a lot of friends.

This is the good picture of us three. So awesome!! what a great week.


So just a little update on whats going on in my life. I have had a job at target for about two months and I'm there for another week. Its been a blast working there. I have made lots of friends and have improved my retail skills. Still nonetheless, on the 29th of July, Miriam and I will be starting our big adventure. First, we're going down to Santa Barbara to visit Miriams former teacher. We are then going up to Utah to see Hannah, Jared and some other family a few days before flying to Florida. We are hangin with Sarah and her fam in Lakeland for two weeks. Utah will wecome us back for another week and a half or two weeks until Jared and I, leaving Miriam in Utah(sniff) drive down to LA for a cousins wedding on Saturday the 23rd of August and drive back up here to Humboldt Sunday or Monday and I start HSU on Tuseday the 26th.
What a month coming up for me huh?? I'm leaving in a week and a half and coming back to a completly different place. I will be the Releif Society President during school and welcome all the new freshman and transfers to HSU. All of my summer friends will be going back to school or off to school. Danny is gone on his mission and Joe will be gone when I come back. This year is going to be a lot different than last year was... all I can say is BRING IT ON with a smile!!!!!!

naomis not as cool sled run

well i try... and yes i got a wedgie as i say at the end.

miriam headfirst

isaac crashing

a video...

bethany doing a run down the snow slide up canyon creek trail. hopefully it works.

Canyon Creek... again

well here's the clan at the beginning. naomi, miriam, mom, dad, tammy, bethany, and isaac. for some reason, bethany likes to make really funny faces in pictures. its her new thing i guess. memorial day weekend backpacking trip is a medley tradition! we have gone to canyon creek the past few years but it fun and different every time!

for those of you who don't know, tammy has become a permanent part of our family. you'll be seeing more pictures of her from now on!

on the edge. you could see down he valley from here and it was beautiful. mom was freaking out cuz we were so close to the edge.this was just right off the trail.

i don't know exactly how cold it was that first night but it was overcast, drizzly, and there were snow patches six feet from out tent. it was a miracle that we got a fire going. i was so cold i used my socks and gloves!

the falls were beautiful. there was tons of water coming down them. for fun, dad threw huge branches in the most turbulent part just to see it break in pieces and laugh at it. it was hilarious.

sort of ridiculous, but we hiked eight miles up into the mountains and ended up doing this- we built a huge snow slide down a bank of snow that we came across and slide down it on our ponchos(which were useless and destroyed by the time we were done with them!) we have some really funny videos of us crashing. Isaac took a bad turn and went into a huge ditch that was eight feet deep! he was laughing the hardest! good times.

here we are finally at the end. a little different than the first picture from the beginning of the trip. we were all very water logged about this time. if you look closely, isaac has a huge rock under his arm. about two miles from the trail head, he decided to carry it. it was about a foot in diameter and a few inches thick of granite! after a while he got tired of it but wouldnt think about putting it down because we all told him when he picked it up that it was still a long ways. he didnt believe us... for about the first mile.