Parable of the Pearl Earrings

Sometimes letting go is not easy.
Even if it's simply pearl earrings. 
Ok so a little background:  It all started with my two best friend's love for pearl earrings.  J & A both LOVE the simple elegance of the pearl earring.
They converted me.  To pearl earring-dom.

Ya so anyway.  I loveee them.  But somehow, if you're not as organized as some other people, pearl earrings are NOT the easiest thing to keep a track of.  

But you buy them anyway.  Cause they're simple, cute, and classy.  White pearls are sooo awesome!  

I obvi love them.  So these are probably my 3rd set in a year, but all that aside, I have to tell you what happened....to ONE of them.  I wore them when I went BRIDGE JUMPING last week.  C'mon Maddy, THINK. 

 Ha but it was even more discouraging because only ONE fell off. So I have one white pearl right? "Oh well" I say to myself.  "I'll just switch to my brown pearls for a while."

You see, my brown pearls are my GOOD friends.  These are the earrings I can turn to whenever I need a backup.  We've seen each other at our best and worst times. LOVE the brown pearls.

  

The brown pearls were the earrings I never ever lost.  

But today the inevitable happened.  As I was changing into a choir costume, the left earring popped out, I reached, fumbling for it in mid-air, it fell into the sink of the Snow building, right down the drain.  RIGHT DOWN IT.

Dear pearl earrings:  It is sad to see you go.  And I still have one brown and one white, but alas, neither set is complete.

I wonder if there is an earring heaven?  Especially if these special friends are in the depths of Monkey Rock or the bowels of the ancient Snow plumbing.  

#familiesareforever

Life is Skittles, Life's Root Beer

Well.  Spring is here.  And Spring Semester is an absolute party!

Symphony Orchestra Concert

Lots of rainy days up here. 

Went on a hike on Memorial day and got Blister's BBQ afterwards!

BFF Temp Trips on Windy Days 

Playing in a folk concert last night...one of my favorite experiences of the semester!  Had so much fun and met so many great friends!

 And...never forget this!  I'm going on a mission!!

First Semester Adventure: SHEEP FALLS

Ame dog on the first day of classes, basking in the sun.

 Up here in Rexburg, we play outside a lot. It's just what we do to have a good time.  So, yesterday we drove up to Sheep Falls, past Ashton.  First thing we knew, our car's stuck.  It took a good two or three hours to get help and get it unstuck.  

 but we had fun waiting...

 Then, some people had to go home cause they had other obligations. (Separated the wheat from the tares), And some of us went on!  It was a simple but beautiful hike.  Like really gorg!  And worth it. 

 The adventurous girls --  Andrea, Me, Jenna

 Two of the kids we went with- Lee and Parker demanded they find a place to take a swim.  I thought I'd just stay back with the other peops, but they demanded I come along and take pics of them. The water was freezing and was seriously straight down sheer cliffs.  But they climbed down the insanely slippery cliffs, and did it!

 So us three hiked an extra 3 miles (and almost risked our lives)

 beautiful walk back.
 

Tender Mercies & the Taco Bus

HOLA Y'ALL!!

I have been called to serve in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission, Spanish speaking leaving August 28th.  I can't think of a call more perfect for me. I don't know too much about the Southern Spanish culture, but from what I do know, I love these people already.  Reasons I'm excited about my mission call:

1. I'd made a really good friend (Beatrice) at APA the couple of weeks leading up to my call. Our main point that we connected on was that she was a newly RM, and I'd just turned in my papers! And she told me that first day we met that she'd just returned from Knoxville Tennessee.  That night I had a VIVID dream I would go there.  That was a couple weeks before I got my call.
aaahhh. CRAZY! Also, she did serve English, but is of Spanish descent so she knew all about the hispanics down there and got to interact with them a little. Also, more on this but below.

2. My grandparents, and many cousins & uncles and aunts on my dad's side, will live IN my mission, when it realigns in JULY. cray-cray.  And I know the area super well. And we're flying out for a Family VACAY we've been planning for months to visit them (before my bros go spend their summers in Alaska & Nauvoo and I leave) which means I'll be visiting MY MISSION.  

3. I love love love the bluegrass/folk connection in those Appalachian mountains. I am gonna be in Music heaven!

Along with getting my mission call came a different call. When I saw the date of August 28th, I KNEW I was supposed to go back to school in Idaho for Spring Semester.  Making this decision was hard but, looking back on these last 9 days, I don't think I've ever seen the Hand of the Lord so distinctly in my life.  Also, a little before I got my call, my friend Beatrice (who I mentioned above) decided she was leaving APA and going to BYU-hawaii Spring Semester.  This was like a SIGN to me after all this happened that me and Ms. Gonzalez crossed paths just for the purpose of this.  It was a tender mercy. But, I found a contract I wanted with in 48 hours and signed it, made arrangements at work, and packed a car and dad drove me up here on Saturday.  Roommates have worked out, I'm a 2 minute walk from my friend's apartment, I am a 2 minute walk to campus, I even made Symphony Orchestra, a miracle based on my audition.  I am in heaven up here. Ok, please Maddy I'm exaggerating. But I do KNOW it's exactly where I'm supposed to be.
Today I went on a double date to the TACO BUS. It was D I V I N E.

 I may or may not have left my camera in SL so purged photos...thanks Emmeline! She is my best bud and homie and the half-owner of this picture (the other being Lydia) and I love her!  The people of Riverside CA are so lucky!!

Vive Taquero El Rancho!!  

MI FAVORITA
AMO COLLEGE

IT's HERE!

Reasons I love AMANDA

This is a birthday tribute to my cuz Amanda!!  Here are some reasons I love her.


     1. We've been cousin/friends for a long time. Our parents used to call us "Amandaline" --combo of Amanda and Madeleine.  

2.  We can definitely be crazy around each other and we're ok with it. 

3.  She's good at everything she tries, sometime you should really hear her play the Brahms Violin Concerto, or any song for that matter. 

4.  Amanda makes me laugh harder than anyone I know to this day!

5. People sometimes say we look like cousins, I consider it a compliment cause she's pretttyy!!!

6. This one's good with kids..haha 

7.  Just some more "Selfies" back in '09.

{before Amanda went to sell books back East this summer.}

8.  Participating in the "crazy crooo"  This consisted of Amanda, Rachel and I being great cousin friends.  When it first started out, we would have like weird group cheers and make up dances and secrets like we all had a crush on Daniel Radcliffe.  Haha what wondrous times!
And look, we still love each other.

9.  Sadly I don't have any proof, but our favorite things used to be to make up dances and perform them for family members, and to make crazy weird videos.  I wiissshh I had some proof cause they were GREAT.

10.  Creeping on Our facebook relationship... too good.

  Manda, you're a champ! Sure love ya!!

Getting Excited

I can't believe I'm on the road to becoming a missionary at age 19.  A year ago, I would have never imagined...well no one my age would've!  
I remember when President Monson made the announcement last September. He began with the age change for young men.  I was on the tip of my seat as he spoke, crossing my fingers, that his next sentence would bring some word for us girls.  
And then it happened.  From age 21 to age 19! I lept and jumped up and down.  
Not necessarily cause I KNEW I was going to serve, I had no clue whether I would or not at that time.  But the one thing that I knew was that this was a legendary announcement and moment in the history of the church, one that would affect my friends & family for generations to come, and I was at an amazing age to witness it.  
Back-tracking to a week prior from that conference, Amy and I were walking the streets of Rexburg.  It had been long enough into our first semester that we were loving it, but also long enough to be missing our friends spread out at Utah State, BYU, the U and elsewhere. So we planned a girl's luncheon BETWEEN sessions on Saturday cause we knew most would be going home for Conference weekend.  

Can you imagine... Sixteen 18-year-old Mormon girls in the same restaurant right after that announcement!??  It was like so much energy crammed into one room.  Not to mention we were all SO excited to be reunited.  Out of the 16 girls in the picture, 11 of us are for-sure serving, and 6 already have their calls. 
Point being, we would've NEVER expected this a couple months ago and yet look at us now.  

I am so beyond excited. 

"I'll go where you want me to go, Dear Lord..
I'll say what you want me to say, Dear Lord, I'll be what you want me to be."

                       (the pic I used for my papers.  It was last-minute)