I LIIIIIIIVE!

Don't worry people! I haven't died! I survived the Earthquake in China, I'm not going anywhere! Now that you know that I'm not dead, you probably think I'm the worst blogger ever. That very well may be true, but I'm here to redeem myself! I haven't let you people down! So I just decided I'm just going to start fresh and new. I'll update a little about the past couple of months, but I'm not really into sitting here for ages writing every single detail that has happened so I'll just give a brief overview and start new. Deal? Deal!!
Alright, here goes nothing...
So I got back from China about a month and a half ago. An opportunity of a lifetime? I'll say so! It came complete with an earthquake! How cool is that?! It was rockin'! Haha, get it Rockin'?! Okay maybe that wasn't one of my finest jokes, but it worked. Seriously though, I had a good time! Even with the earthquake! That didn't ruin my sense of fun. It did for a few days, but I got back on track once I left the city. I turned out okay in the end; no bumps of bruises. The people in the epicenter weren't as lucky as I was though. It was such a devistating destruction. So sad! A recent count has said that over 80,000 people have died from the earthquake. I will tell you that at the time the earthquake happened, I too was afraid of death, but we made it out a lot luckier than the people at the epicenter did. The area that I was in was a richer area, where the buildings were built a lot stronger than was at the epicenter. Our buildings were atleast built to withstand a 7.9 earthquake whereas at the epicenter the buildings collapsed within 5 seconds of the earthquake happening. It was a 8.0 earthquake and by the time it got to us (60 miles away) it was a 7.5. Pretty crazy stuff if you ask me! I can't believe I was there, and so close too! I loved the people there though! I've never met a kinder people before in my life! They are such good hosts. They are so thoughtful too! Seriously, it may be hard to think that a whole people could be like that, but it's true. It's just their culture. They are all so loving, kind, and caring. They are truly a Christ-like people. They are so ready for the gospel there. I loved my time there!!! Like I said, I could spend ages here telling my stories, but I don't want to be here forever and plus I think you guys might get a little board reading. Maybe I'll post later stories of my adventures in China.
So life here in the Mesa eh?? It's been good! I like being home, but it's getting harder and harder trying to find productive things to do with my time. I don't have a job so that's one time filler upper I have to find. Mostly I just spend my time doing things that I can help out with or perfect my talents and abilities with in any way shape or form. I babysit a lot for the fam, I made a quilt (which is almost done by the way and I'm super stoked to use it as my new bed spread at college; I think I'll forever be filled with accomplishment when I look at it b/c then I will remember the time I defeated the sewing machine and stuck with the job which I never have done before. I always leave sewing projects unfinished.), I play the piano a lot, read a lot (I first started reading a book about the second coming called "The Coming of Our Lord". Geez I wonder what got me thinking about the second coming?! It's really good though and I recommend it. My mom recommended it to me. I also got drug into the Twilight series by my mom and sisters. We are attending the Barnes and Nobles book opening party for the 4th book this Friday. What can I say, we are a bunch of junkies. I'm only a little bit more than half way through the first book right now, but it's definately my new frenzy right now.), I hang out with my friends a lot (they've recently hooked me on the "So you think you can Dance" episodes every Wednesday and Thursday and we watch them together), ummm and I do a bunch of other things too that I can't think of right now. I don't really want to boar you with anymore details, so I'll let it be for now. Now I'll just post some pictures from China because what would a blog be like without any pictures??? Well I'll fill you in some other time with my grand life story and hopefully I can keep up with this thing.

These photos are from the first city we visited where we had the earthquake, Chengdu. We were there for 2 1/2 weeks.

















































These pictures are from the second place we visited, Guiyang. We were there for 3 1/2 weeks.