I am more of a sentimental feely kind of person…which he is not…HA! But I still think that he will like it. I may totally give away what the gift is by saying this…and I don’t want to say what it is cause I don’t want to ruin Christmas…but I have been looking through a lot of videos and pictures of this past year recently.
And I realized….
DANG!!! I am Incredibly blessed!
Lets go over highlights and happenings of this past year:
JANUARY:
-Last Semester At BYU
-Went Skiing for the First time EVER!
-Started Student Teaching At Lone Peak High School
-Lived in Provo with THE MOST AMAZING 5 girls
(its a Cuddle Puddle!)-Showing of Our Town at Lone Peak High School which I co-directed with Travis Renyolds
-Took a little road trip with some roommates and my sister to St George to get out of cold Provo and enjoy some good company and sun!
MARCH:
-Got to go out to dinner with 2 of my best friends Dan and Sue for Dans b-day!
-My sister Emily gave birth to my first niece! Mikah Emily! She is now with the Johnson family...she is a BEAUTIFUL baby! Loved by MANY!
-Stayed VERY busy with Student teaching and Directing at Lone Peak High School
-My students took Straight Superiors at Region and State One Act Competitions with the one act I directed, “Second Class” – It was AWESOME!!!!
-Festival of Colors!!! With Miriam and Emily! I FINALLY got to go this year! I ALWAYS miss it for one reason or another…it was fun to finally get to be there! =)
APRIL:
-Conference and Conference Crepes!
-SPRING BREAK!!!! That’s RIGHT!!! Being a BYU student I have not had spring break in YEARS!!! BUT this semester I was student teaching! And if the High School is out! So was I! HAzAa!!!!
-LOTS of Peter Pan rehearsals! And Showing of Peter Pan the Musical which I co-directed with Jim Smith.
yes! I had all of my pirates wear converse shoes! HA! it was AWESOME!!!
-I have great family and friends who support me!such as show here in the picture: Kim, Emily, Me, Sue, Adam and Emily
-Officially Finished Student Teaching – with Flying colors!
-GRADUATED FROM BYU!!!!!!
All 6 of us graduated Together!-My roommates and I all moved out of our home in Provo to start going our separate ways (one of the saddest days of my life!)
MAY:
-Spent a LOT of time with Alex and Brandon
-Band of Brothers!-Worked out a lot! (strength training, step aerobics, dance, yoga, discovered Zumba!...I LOVE ZUMBA!!etc)
-Peter Pan Cast Party
-Played “mom” for a week – watched my cousins 2 little ones.
-Looked for a job/something to do in the fall…yeah that consumed a lot of my time…filled out a lot of applications and spent HOURS on my resume!-Had an EPIC dance party! in apt 301!!! Dancers: Scotty, Alex & Kristy!!!
(there is a past blog about this- if you haven't seen it yet...Repent now! its a MUST! you wont regret it! )
-went wedding dress shopping with my Best Friend and TWINNER
we didn't pick this dress- so we sadly didn't get the awesome hair tie... =(
She is SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!-Trevor's birthday dinner! alex and I wrote Trev a song on my ukulele on the way there! ha!
(Teshena, me, Trev, Alex)
(Emily, Mikah, Cosmo)
-It snowed like CRAZY!!!...YES remember how its MAY!
(me and bethkins!)JUNE:
-My Grandma Goodwin Passed away.
I am so grateful for my knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the Plan of Salvation!-This month consisted of efy: (each week has its own blog if you look at past posts)
BYU#2 – w/ David and Mandi “Forgive Judge Not”
St. George – w/ Alex “The Chosen” (possibly the best week of my life!)
Logan #1- w/Warren “Eternal Endurance”
SLC #1- w/Ed “ To the End”
SLC #2- w/Kat and Jared “Astonishing Influence”
What a special and amazing month! Dedicated to teaching the amazing youth of the church. Being an efy counselor has been a great opportunity in my life and I will be forever changed and better because of the many friendships and experiences I have had because of efy!
-Sweet SWEET reunion with Miriam after her study abroad to London
(group hug: Kristy, Trevor, Alex, Miriam)
(Trevor, Kristy, Brandon, Miriam, Alex)-I discovered this awesome book! love LoVe!!!
-Alex went to ROTC AirForce training…6 weeks without my best friend…MEH!
JULY:
-More Fun times with good friends!
(scotty, miriam, brandon, kristy)-Sue's bridal shower barbecue!
-Little Neeley's shark bridal shower
complete with shark bride cake!!!-Went to NYC for the first time – spent a week to check it out and interview at a few places.
-Saw my first Broadway show ON BROADWAY! 
-Went to INDIA with the Theatre Mitu company!
(this experience also has individual blog posts and it was an INCREDIBLE time!)
-My best friend in the entire world and Twin was married (while I was in India)! I cried when a “roommate picture” from the wedding was posted and I was tagged as being there even though I was not. Wish I could have been there for this VERY SPECIAL occasion. Even still…I LOVE YOU ADAM AND SUE!
AUGUST:
-Megan and Todd were married (I was still in India) but I am so happy for them! And I love them to pieces!
-Came home from India
-I was offered an internship with a Theater Company in NYC
-My cousin Brian got married!
-helped DJ a pretty sweet dance for the youth @ BYU education week with the crazies...
Crazies = Jason, Ashley, Kristy, Alex
cassie!
branny!
-I got to see DAN!!!!
-I Moved to NYC(um….might I mention its CRAZY how fast my life changes!)
SEPTEMBER:
-Frantically searched for jobs in NYC
-Turned in lots of applications
-Had lots of Interviews
-Started Working at “Children’s Learning Center” as the After School’s Teacher for the 2-5 year olds.
-Went to see the September 11th memorial with Matthew
-Was offered an Internship with the Theater Mitu Company!!!
-YSA regional Conference
YSA walking tour group!
Abby 
Willy, Gwen, Kristy, Cedrick @ the dance!-Fun times discovering NYC
-FHE- yeah…I know strange thing to put as a highlight…but I have become very involved! I go to FHE every week faithfully! And we have some fun activities!ie: Gwen (love her!) and Willy did salsa dancing lessons! So FUN!
-Ward boundaries were changed for the Singles wards. I went from being in the Inwood ward (about 50 people) to the newly formed Harlem 3rd Ward (200 people!)
OCTOBER:
-General Conference!
-Salsa dancing with Willy’s band! (put those salsa dance lessons to use!) it was AWESOME! Willys band is GREAT!!!
-Became best friends with my neighbors Adam and Antonio!!!
NYC would be a very lonely place without 3 things:
1-the church
2-Adam
3-Antonio
I LOVE THEM ALL!!! And I am SO SO VERY GRATEFUL for their Friendship!!!!-Yoga with Antonio (yes as Miriam put it: I am a “New York Hippie!” hehehe)
-Yay for Farmers Markets!
-Parker came to see in in NYC!
-Ben and Michael came to Visit me too!!! and I got to do some AWESOME things with them:-Saw WIckEd!!! (they won the lottery! and got us Front Row tickets!)
-Statue of liberty
- Ellis Island this was REALLY COOL to me! cause I have family that came to the US and had to go through Ellis Island...
( this is a little story that I loved that I saw there and Loved!)We also saw...
this was a GREAT show!-We had birthday festivities for Val
with a fake skookie (it just didn't turn out how it usually does...thats why I called it fake...but it was still good)-Some nights we wander around with not much to do...
except for hang upside down on the subway
-I ran a 5k
sponsored by the Manhattan 8th Ward and the Harlem 3rd Ward...I did it in 30 minutes! =)-Adam came in town for a Med school Interview so I got to see him very briefly! love LOVE!
-I got to see my BFF Ashley Jentzch Robertshaw!!! and Her hubby Aaron! =) BEST DAY EVER!!! I miss them so much!!!
Last time I saw them was on their wedding day…and now cute Ash is Pregnant! Yay! I will be an auntie!-Butoh workshop with my Thai teacher (from India) Tdam! It was awesome to see him again and be able to participate in this workshop!
- Antonio and I LOVE to COOK together~
he teaches me cool Spanish recipies
...making Bread together....and We even made pumpkin pie from Scratch! thats right friends! we bought a pie at the Farmers market and cooked it!...Anto had never had pumpkin pie before.
-Buddy!
This is Adam's dog Buddy...we love him! we go on lots of walks together!-HaLlOwEeN...
(modeling the subway stop that we live right off of)-Had a nice little dinner party with some Mitu friends
(Candida, Steven, ME, Dtam)WARNING: if you are at a dinner party on Halloween night and your other group of friends doesn't remember where you told them you may be...they MAY freak out and call you a million times and send you a zillion text messages wondering where you are. (haha)
NOVEMBER:
-My roommates and I moved into our new apartment!
(Roomies: Erin, Val, Ingrid)-I Went to an Open House at CUNY to look at their MA program in Applied Theater for my graduate studies. I was really impressed…I like the look and feel of this program a LOT! I want to apply!
-I went and watched part of the NYC marathon....and I was INSPIRED!
-Beautiful Central Park !
i LOVE central Park! I go running there often!...my usual run is from my apartment, around the road up and around the reservoir and back- its about 4 miles.Twice I have run the whole road that leads all the way through Central Park and it is
6.2 miles! I am pretty darn proud of myself! I used to HATE running!
-Started working for Champion Learning Center as a tutor.
I tutor students who go to title 1 schools. (lower income/poverty level/failing schools) and I go into their homes and tutor them 1on1 in English and Math. It’s a good job, frustrating at times, but I LOVE these kids!
-Got a job working for clothing designer Robert Comstock. I clean his office/showroom once a week. Such a BLESSING to have this job!
With these 2 new jobs I turned in my 2 weeks notice at the preschool. I will miss those little ones that I worked with. I REALLY LOVE them! It was sad to go and say goodbye…but 3 jobs plus my internship was a bit too much to handle at once.
this is me reading to some of the kiddlets on one of my last days...one of my FAVORITE stories:"THE PAPER BAG PRINCESS"
-I discovered that I love little Mexican Wedding Cookies!
here is the recipe...we made them with my pre-schoolers...so YUMMY!...you mix these ingredients together, role them into balls, bake them, then role them in Powered sugar, and serve. I LOVE eating them while they are still warm!!!-Hangin with my besties! (we went to Rice to Riches)
Kristy, Anto, Adam, Gwen, Willy!!!
This is Adam, Me, the very talented John, and Val after our concert.-I took a week off for THANKSGIVING and went back to my mission!!!
(I also wrote a blog post about this week) It was AWESOME to be back in the NYRM and see old friends and spend time with those people out there that I LOVE!!!!like KAtie WiXom!!!
-Antonio left to go back to Spain for a month and 1/2 …
so long!...I miss him!DECEMBER:
-Had Adam and the Sister Missionaries over for dinner! Strange to be on the other side of this…but I LOVE it! I LOVE these Sisters!
-Stake Christmas Concert-NYC Christmas lights and the famous CHRISTMAS TREE at the Rockafeller Center!
-Christmas Caroling with the missionaries…and then home made hot chocolate goodness at my apartment! (this is the most people that I have had over at my place! –good times!)
-HOME TO UTAH for CHRISTMAS!!!!!
-I have been to the Dentist a LOT since I have been home!- grateful to get the work done!
-Went to Idaho for a weekend for (mom’s side) Family Christmas Party!
(this is on the way up there...we stopped for a little break to play in the snow)-Seeing LOTS of Friends!!! YAY friends
for example:
(John and Erwin!)
-Spending time with my twinner Sue and her Adam.for example:
(John and Erwin!) 
-Spending time relaxing and hanging with my family!!!-Parker got his mission call!
misson!
We had a GREAT TIME!!!What an INCREDIBLE year! I am so Thankful for the wonderful family and friends and many opportunities and experiences that Heavenly Father has blessed me with! I am TRULY blessed! I am excited to see what the Lord has in Store for me in this upcoming year! I’m SURE it’s gonna be good!
