And thats a wrap!

I cannot believe how fast the time has gone.
Just wanted to fill you in on some of the happenings
during the last few weeks of school.
Because I am so late,
I guess the most efficient way to do so
is through pictures.

A week following Honk! was
prom week.
The theme was Party at Gatsby's.
 Despite a last minute
meltdown that I was the only one of my friends
that had not been asked,
and almost deciding not to go,
Sarah, Brielle, and my mom
convinced me to go.

Me and my Parker boy!

Am I glad I went? Yes
Was it the best dance of highschool? No.
I am glad I went because I would have always wondered what
I missed out on if I hadnt gone,
but it wasnt the funnest night.

Not long after prom week,
I had AP testing.
My AP psych teacher gave us these funny papers a week
or so before we took our test!

So funny!
I had two
and took both of them on the same day.
I had my AP Environmental Science (APES)
in the morning,
and then took my AP psych test that afternoon.
Needless to say, it was a long day.
I should find out my results
in early July.
Fingers crossed!

We also had our Senior Luncheon.

 

 Best Friends

I am so grateful for Jessie Burckel!
She was our Senior class president,
and I am so grateful for the opportunity to get so close
to her over the past few years.
She is a pretty incredible friend!

And of course, I dont think I couldve made it without
my mama by my side 100% of the time.
I am so grateful for her!

Also, Ashley, Kate and I had so much fun supporting
John as his last couple of track meets.
Pole vaulting is actually a really cool thing to watch.

Even when it was freezing cold!

It was so cold and windy that I had to improvise

on how to stay warm.

So I wore his warm ups as a jacket! Haha

"SWIGGITY SWAG!"

Ashley and I even surprised him with a poster and candy
waiting in his room when he got home from the away meet that night.
the night that he vaulted 12"8' which
qualified him for state!
We were so excited for him!

We also had our senior sunset which was a lot of fun too.
We also did our senior prank which was awesome, even though it got caught by the cops.
And our last week of school,
the seniors did a senior spirit week which was seriously
so much fun!
And of course, we had our senior awards nights where we got our chords,
and our senior assembly which was extremely cheesy and very very bittersweet!

So I guess thats as good as its gonna get as far
as wrappin up high school.
Sorry it was so late!

HONK!

Alright!

This post is looong over due but I finally have time to post about

DCC's spring musical "Honk!"

And what better way to do so then in pictures right?

[These may or may not be in exact order of the show..]

My husband Drake (Grant) and I at the beginning of the show.

This picture must have been during a rehearsal because

the nest isnt done.

The end of the opening number,

A Poultry Tale

The Joy of Motherhood

Talking into the cell phone

Saying goodbye to the family and Maureen

before I left on the journey to find Ugly.

Crying over Ugly, when I think hes dead.

Right after all my ducklings hatch.

One day during rehearsal

As self centered as it may seem,

my whole life I have dreamed about running out on stage

for curtain call, all by myself.

This year,
that came true.
And let me be the first to say
that it felt good!
Although it was a small thing,
it was a huge reminder to me that this is what I want
to do for the rest of my life.
And that is a pretty exciting thing.

Sarah and I finally got a picture of us performing together!

After the show!

 

We love Ihop!

Duck faces!

So although this was a crazy unorganized post, 

I thought I should still post, even though it was

almost two months ago!

I am grateful for the experience, 

and for the great reminder that I

dont want to do anything else besides music and theatre

and I cant wait to see what BYU-I's

programs have to offer me.

"To Him that Overcometh"

I'm not sure what to say...

Except that we live in a sad world.

People constantly trying to tear us down.

People who just can't seem to find the peace and happiness this world has to offer.

My heart is hurting to tonight.

The past two weeks have been really hard. 8 deaths. One of which was a techie at DCC. Sean Hill was a freshman.

I didnt finish this post.. 

But I do want to say that I am forever grateful

 for the friendship, as short as it was, 

that I had with Sean. 

Every time I was back stage he would ask me 

what he could do for me, 

or if he could grab some food for me or fill my water bottle up. 

I remember always interpretive dancing with him backstage. 

Although, I did not know him well, or even very long, 

Sean Hill was a very special person who will most definitely never be forgotten.

In seminary we are studying the book of revelation 

and we had a lesson called "to him that Overcometh" .

I am so grateful for that lesson. 

It reminded me that we will struggle and have a hard time.

But "To him that Overcometh", will be blessed.

 And I know that to be true without any doubt as I  know

 that when hard times come, 

my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ are right there beside me,

experiencing every joy, burden, frustration, and happiness

that I will have on this earth. 

And I am eternally grateful to know that,

because how scary life would be without the comfort that

this knowledge brings to me in times like these.. 

I can't even imagine what it would be like. 

I love my Heavenly Father

and I am grateful to know that he has a plan not just for me, but for everyone.

The Call

Two Years ago today,

my mom came down to my room and told 

me that Grandpa Allred 

had just past away from 

pancreatic cancer.

There is a song by Regina Spektor

that I just absolutely love called

"The Call"

began playing on my ipod

which invited so many memories

of my grandpa

to overflow my mind.

And really,

I just cant say it any better than the song itself,

so here it is:

"It started out as a feeling
Which then grew into a hope
Which then turned into a quiet thought
Which then turned into a quiet word
And then that word grew louder and louder
'Til it was a battle cry
I'll come back when you call me
No need to say goodbye

Just because everything's changing
Doesn't mean it's never been this way before
All you can do is try to know who your friends are
As you head off to the war
Pick a star on the dark horizon and follow the light
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye
You'll come back when it's over
No need to say goodbye

Now we're back to the beginning
It's just a feeling and no one knows yet
But just because they can't feel it too
Doesn't mean that you have to forget
Let your memories grow stronger and stronger
'Til they're before your eyes
You'll come back when they call you
No need to say goodbye
You'll come back when they call you
No need to say goodbye"

I am so grateful to know that my family is

together forever.

I know that I will get to see my Grandpa

again.

I know that he looks after me.

I have felt his love for me one countless occasions

as I journey through my life here on Earth.

I miss him everyday.

I miss collecting coins with him.

I miss him teaching us some of the simplest life lessons.

I miss him making grandpas juice.

I miss seeing him work so hard for my Grandma.

I miss his hugs.

I miss him putting my long hair on his bald head pretending

that he had long hair.

I miss him pinching my nose and pretending that

he had it in his hand.

I miss him yelling from inside of

the house for us to stay our of the flowers.

I miss him coming to visit us,

and to support me through the big decisions that I make.

I am sad that he wont see me get married

in the temple,

I am sad that he wont see me serve a mission,

and start college.

But,

I know that he has returned to live

with our Father in Heaven.

I know that he is happy,

and smiles down on me everyday

as I try my best to make him proud.

I will let my memories grow

stronger and Stronger,

because there is no need to say goodbye.

So until we meet again,

I love and miss you Grampa!

Dedicated to 

Ralph Lynn Allred
June 3, 1929 - 9:55pm April 27, 2011

A GOOD DAY

Because of the world we live in,
with the natural disasters, and tragedies,

I think we can all, at times, have a hard time finding 

good days coming our way.

Today was senior skip day!

A day well worth waiting for.

The day began with sleeping in which is always nice.

I woke up feeling good,

knowing that my God had given me a full nights rest.

I woke up to a clean room, and a bright shining sun.

I was meeting Anna and Sarah at 11:00 to go bowling

to finish up the last of my class.

And not going to lie, I was pretty bummed that I was gonna have

to spend Senior Skip Day doing homework.

At least that was the plan.

But anyone who has ever had a good day

knows that they never goes as planned

because they are filled with adventure

and some of the greatest memories and happiness can come from

things unplanned.

Although, I usually drag my feet bowling because,

lets be honest,

i'm just not a good bowler,

I was actually very excited to do something with Anna and Sarah.

Walking out of the house, 

I was already late meeting them, 

and had full arms.

I managed to unlock and open the door to my car,

and just as I was about to put my stuff down, 

a small dog that had been wondering ours and a few

neighbors front yards, was right at my feet and jumped right 

into my car!

At first I was like "What the?!"

but I picked her up and took her inside and my mom and I

decided to take her up to the street to the address that was on her collar.

Boy was she cute or what!

But I was happy to give her back to her family before they realized she was gone and began to worry.

Much later than we had planned,

Sarah, Anna, and I all headed to the bowling alley

to finish up this dumb class of mine.

But we had a blast,

with lots of laughter, pictures and mentos.

We then headed to the shops at Briargate for some lunch.

We sure do love Panera Bread.

It is so yummy!

But after eating and visiting for a while we

decided to walk around the shops.

We went into a store called Francesca's

which is a small little boutique with really cute clothes,

and jewelry, and just little trinkets.

(Which by the way happens to be hiring and doing interviews this week,

so I picked up an application and turned it in. So hopefully i'll get a call! I'll let you know.)

It's basically pinterest but all in a store less than 15 miles away from home.
The small homey type of store.

You know what im talking about??

After trying on dress after dress,

we headed out so that we could get Sarah to her 

job interview at American Eagle by 3:30.

We were about to walk out when we saw that it was blizzarding outside!!

It was crazy!

(Member I woke up to sunshine? It was supposed to be nice today!

I think that being a Colorado weatherman is the only job that you can be hundred percent wrong

a hundred percent of the time, and still keep your job! Seriously! Haha)

So there we were at the front of the store,

planning out how we were gonna get to the car,

as we were in capris, sandals, and of course no jackets.

We decided to just go for it.

It wouldve worked if my phone didnt fall out of my pocket!

It fell out and as it hit the ground the back of it fell off,

and the battery fell out!

Anna yells, 

"Stacey your phone!!"

I turn around and realize its in the three pieces in the street,

so I run back to pick it up and just as im about to get to it, 

the back and my battery begin to blow away because of the wind!

(I am seriously dying from laughter right now, I just still cant believe how funny this whole scene was to us!

I cant imagine what it looked like from a strangers perspective!)

So I scream, "Oh no!"

and Sarah who I guess was clueless to this whole thing was like

"What??"

I get to my phone and catch the battery before it got too far,

but the back to my phone was literally flying through the air like a kite!

So im sprinting after it, screaming, and Sarah is running after me, screaming!

All in the snow that is coming down so hard,

it seriously might as well have been a blizzard.

Im sure it was just quite the scene.

So I chased my phone back all the way across the parking lot,

and Sarah finally yells,

"What are we doing?! What are you even looking for?!"

And I yell back to her that the wind picked up the back to my phone,

as we reach the street.

We are standing in the grass looking at the street as cars are coming

both ways.

But both cars coming from each direction stopped out of confusion

because these two girls in capris, sandals and no jackets,

are so carefully trying to examine the road even though

we couldnt even keep our eyes open because there

was SO MUCH SNOW!

Sarah finally saw it on the other side of the road and

ran to pick it up and we book it back to car,

which is on the other side of the parking lot.

Running against the wind in our sandals and laughing hysterically about

the whole situation made it

extremely difficult to make it back to the car quickly.

When we did make it back to the car,

anna was just sitting in the back seat texting!

Hahaha it may not be very funny,

but the whole thing was absolutely hilarious!

Tears are in my eyes from laughing right now.

Anyways,

we got Sarah to her interview

and she felt really good about it afterwards so hopefully

she gets it.

We then took Anna to work at Chick la fe, 

and decided to head home after

quite the eventful afternoon.

Even though the original plan to spend the whole day doing homework

didnt happen, 

I am so glad that I got to spend the day with my two best friends.

All through high school we have said

that we will be 

"Best Friends To The End."

The "end" being the end of high school.

But I know that there really wont be an end to our friendship.

Our friendship will last well into the rest of our lives,

and years from now we will be telling our kids of 

all the crazy things that we did,

like the time that we got lost and drove around for almost 

five hours looking for a hike only to find out that it's only 

40 minutes away from our house,

Our trip to New York City,

and of course running all the way across a parking lot trying to catch the

back of my phone.

There's a quote that I just love,

"Memorires last forever, never do they die. Friends stay together, never say goodbye." - Unknown

So even though we are all going to seperate colleges, 

I am so excited to see where they end up in

life and to celebrate with them the accomplishements that come their way,

for they are truly two of the greatest friends that I have ever had.

As you can tell,

it didnt go as planned,

but today was

A GOOD DAY.

And I dont think I could ask for anything more.

Another Hit

I'm not sure that I will be able to successfully express what's going on

in my head right now, but I will certainly try my best.

I am feeling heart broken, sad, happy,

blessed and grateful after this week.

Like any other year, the Boston Marathon was going great.

Runners from all over the world were participating.

 But little did anyone know,

it wouldn't end like they were hoping. 

Unfortunately, America has taken another hit.

Three of four bombs went off,

killing two people at the scene and leaving hundreds injured,

of which many are in critical condition.

So my heart is aching for the people that were 

affected by this awful event.

We live in a sad sad sad world..

You might be wondering how in this world am I am also feeling happy,

 blessed and grateful on a day like that.

I am feeling happy because I am so blessed 

enough to be close to my family today...

To be able to give them tight hugs, 

and to know that they are all safe.

 And for that I am extremely grateful.

I am grateful to know that in order for things to get better,

they must first get worse.

I am blessed to know that my Heavenly Father has a plan.

He knows what he's doing.

And although it may, at times, be scary to not know 

what's gonna happen, 

I am comforted by knowing that he knows me and has a plan for me.

My prayers go out to those in Boston.

I pray that they might find out who is responsible for this.

I cannot even imagine what some may being going through.

We read a story of a participant who was running,

and as a result of the bombs,

he lost both legs.. I just can't imagine...

What it would be like to listen to a doctor telling

me that I would never be able to sing ever again.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf said,

"Please understand that what you see and experience now,

is not what forever will be." 

And I think that can bring us a great amount of comfort right now.

Let us all keep the faith to carry on and to be united as a country.