Dixie and my Beehive Class

:) Today was a really good day. Actually, the last few days have been really good days. As for my little friend I told you about that we weren't sure if she would make it through the week, she has. Miracles happen. She's still not doing well but she's alive. I hope that if she gets to be in too much pain God will take her because I hate seeing her suffering. I don't know, whatever happens, I'll let it be, but for right now I'm just happy I've gotten a few more days with her.
Thursday I got to go up with Megan White to SNOWBIRD!!! It was soooo fun. We swam, went to the gift shop, bought lots of sugar to get us hyper, hung out at her hotel room, ate dinner, ect. We were going to spend the night there but her parents wanted to come back down to Provo for that night because they had a funeral they had to be at the next morning. My parents didn't want me up there without her parents.... so we had to come back down as well. But Megan got to sleepover at my house! Which was way fun. We stayed up until late late late watching High School Musical 2, because we're dorks like that. Then we messed around until 3 in the morning when we finally went to bed. Woke up at 10:30ish the next morning, ate breakfast and just hung around until her mom came to pick her up. That night my dad took me out to dinner and then we just hung out together around town.
Today I got up, my dad took me to breakfast, we drove to American Fork to pick up something, drove by Maggie Moo's and saw my counselor from RFG working there... so we stopped and said hi :) It made me laugh when she still responded to Dixie. I would've called her Tiffany but I was too happy to see her I couldn't think of it at the moment. Ha, ha. It was funny seeing her but it was really great at the same time. We talked for a minute and then left. Then my dad and I went up to Salt Lake, had lunch, took a carriage ride around downtown, and walked through Temple Square. On our way home we stopped at USANA Amphitheater to check out the venue for the Sugarland concert!!! Made me even more excited. Can't wait to get there and start tailgating. Lots of LMP Live signs are being made, and it's now more than just me working on it. It's going to be so fun. I got the okay from Vivian that she is coming today, which made me happy. When we got home our power was out because of a tree branch that had fallen on the power lines. We were without power for about 2 hours, and it shut off right before dinner so we had no way of cooking anything. Instead we went to Cafe Rio. Then my dad and I drove around for a bit and now we're home.
I'm supposed to be working on my lesson for tomorrow right now. I'm teaching the Young Women lesson on overcoming opposition. Yeah. Me. A 45 minute lesson. With my entire beehive class. I'm a little stressed but it will be fun and hopefully I'll be able to teach my girls something. Being in the presidency kind of forces me to love these girls, but I really do love them anyway as annoying as the little ones can get sometimes ;)
I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. As of right now it's not going well as my lesson is going to last about 5 minutes.... I'm gonna go.. work on that.

Night!

Little Miss Erika

The Little Miss Project - BOOK!

First off, I'm sitting here, right now, at my computer, listening to the rain, the thunder, watching the lightning and loving every second of it. This is what I call fabulous.

One of my friends, who was in the original LMP, is putting together a book, with a bunch of the original Little Misses and a few others. We put our stories in it, and they are going to give it to Jenn & K at the Atlanta hometown show in October. So I thought I'd show you what my page looks like. Amazing, isn't it? I mean, it's small, but you get the basic idea of what it looks like. She's soooo good at doing stuff like this, I love it so much. I can't wait to hear about Jenn's reaction when they give it to her. I feel honored to be a part of it.

Little Miss Erika

This still makes me cry.

THIS video makes me cry every time I watch it. I love that girl so much it hurts <3

Why I Believe.

Music.

It has this way of impacting us like none other. While at RFG this past week, our counselor always played a song before our devotionals. One being the one I told you about, Someone Needs Your Star. I don't know why I'm doing this, but I know that last time I heard someone say that they were doing it for me, so I'm going to do it anyway. But I felt like I should post my favorite songs from this week. There are only three. I figured, when you feel like you should do something, you might as well do it because it can't hurt either way. But I thought maybe someone, somewhere, will stumble across my blog, see this, and maybe that person is the reason I said "I don't know why I'm doing this, but I'm going to do it anyway." Maybe they'll be inspired the same way I was. So if this person is you, I hope you find your comfort here. Because I did mine. I hope you find some peace in knowing that this is why I believe and I wanted to share it with you. So here are the songs I felt I should post. I hope you'll listen. Because you could be that person.

Someone Needs Your Star
I am His Daughter (This one might be my favorite)
Happily Ever After (The picture in this one gives me chills :))

Little Miss Erika

Proud of it.

Is this not the most favorite picture of my face that you have ever seen? Tell me that you don't love this! I laughed real hard when I saw that. I told my dad not to take pictures of me when I'm hugging people. AWKWARD! Ha, ha. But I thought, maybe, you'd laugh at that and then we could laugh together at my stupid face.







This past week I've been at Retreat For Girls. RFG is a program for girls 12-15, that's like EFY but for just girls. Young girls. Is it held every year since 2005 at the USU campus in Logan, Utah. People come from all around the world, literally, to participate. Last week that had someone from Kuwait! There are 2 sessions, and this year there were 330 girls (I think) in total.

Nikkee, Jalenne, Kali and Danica

We checked in on Monday morning around 11, found where I was staying and then went to get my bags from the car. We met my counselor (Dixie) and then headed up to my room to unpack. My roommate, Ella, came about half an hour later. Then my mom and my grandma left, and Ella and I had some time to get to know each other and our other dorm mates. We then went over to the other dorm that our group was living in to have a group meeting. There were 11 girls in our group; Ella, Kali, Danica, Shayla, Jalenne, Sierra, Tori, Emily, Nikkee, Hanna, and myself. We got to know each other a little bit, played some games and made a coat of arms for our group.  We then had lawn games, our opening session and our opening banquet, then had time to get ready for bed and to call home. After we had a devotional, then time to read scriptures, ect. and then off to bed at 10:30.

Ella! Ha, ha, twinny :)

Tuesday we woke up at 7, got ready and dressed, had group scripture study at 7:30, then breakfast, and off to our first set of speakers. The first one was Chad Hymes. He talked about how life isn't about you, you have to put aside yourself to do what you were sent here to do, help others. The next guy was Micheal Hicks. He arranged the "Sisters in Zion" medly for EFY. He played us some of his compositions, which was really special, and I was kind of emotional. He played us a song he wrote about Joseph Smith and had someone else sing it. It was really pretty. Talking about the gospel, he writes, "He knows, that I know, I cannot deny it, I will live my life by it." It impacted me. He knows I know, my friends. Then we heard from John Hilton III, who was super funny and awesome. He talked about... like, dreams, and goals, and stuff like that, I think. At least that's what I have written down, ha, ha. Then we had lunch, we played more games, and then we did Dixie Idol! Now, since my counselor's name is Dixie, well, her nickname, we did our own spin on American Idol. I wasn't going to sing until they made me do it. And after I can't tell you how good it felt. Whether they were kidding, or just being nice, I don't care, they were like "You're SOOOO good!" and one girl kept telling me to invite her to all of my shows when I make it big out there. I don't know. Something felt right with them. :) We then did a craft in which we painted these wood blocks and then put a picture of the temple on them. After that we got into our best dress, which was a pain, but we had to do it for dinner/the counselor fashion show. We went to dinner, went to the fashion show, in which the counselors dressed up as their favorite fruit, their best costume, an American landmark, took a non-modest outfit and made it modest, and then finally, their happily ever after in which they dressed up in a prom dress. Then we had time to get ready for bed, call home, went to our devotional, had quiet time, and lights were out.
Wednesday was by far, the best. We got up at 7:00 again. Had our scripture study, breakfast, than went to our first speaker... HANK SMITH!!!!!! Now, if anyone knows me, they know how much I love Hank. I have all of his CD's memorized. No joke. I love him. I was like, freaking out that he was there. Coolest thing ever! He's such a good speaker. Then we heard from Anthony Sweat who was also good, funny, rising up to our potential. Then it was CARMEN RASMUSSEN. Like, the CARMEN RASMUSSEN. I love her. I love her music. I have all of her CD's, her book, everything. I love her. No joke. She was really good. She talked about her experience on American Idol and how you can never give in. No matter what. Then we had lunch, then our theme activity, which is where the head counselors taught classes. There were four classes that took about 2 hours. We then had another craft in which we made headbands. Then we had dinner, went to another theme activity in which we made little scrapbook, journal things. Then we danced. Yeah. Every year they do this dance. And they film us. It was great. Then we got ready for bed, had our devotional, quiet time and lights out.

Kali, myself, and Shayla

Thursday. Thursday started out really good, just like any other morning. Up at 7, scriptures, breakfast. Then we had John Bytheway talk to us. He was funny. He talked about being respected, and how we are valued. Then it was Kris Blecher. She's blind. Her talk really opened my eyes. She talked about trials. And joked about it. Her personality is amazing. Then we heard from some lady that I don't remember her name but she talked about being needed and missionary work. We then went to lunch. After lunch we walked to the other end of campus for our service project in which we assembled math curriculum stuff for a billion kindergartners. I won't lie. I hated it. We had to put 600+ sheets of paper into sheet protectors and then into a binder. Blah. Then we went to the Aggie Ice Cream store and got ice cream, then went to the bookstore. I got a journal and a shirt :) Then we went back to our dorms, then went to dinner. After dinner were counselor classes. These were fun. We learned how to make our self beautiful on the outside as well on the inside. It was fun. Then we had time to get ready and call home. Calling home is why I say that "Thursday started out really good." but didn't end that way. It's because as I called home I got news that my friend fighting cancer, they think she's going to die before the week is over. They didn't know if she would make it through last night and she's barely hanging on tonight. I bawled. Then we went to devotional, where I held myself together real well, I think. We had a really special devotional. Dixie answered our questions that we had given her the night before. It answered mine and strengthened my testimony. At the devotional Dixie kept saying "If there's anything you ever need, you come talk to me." I figured I should probably go talk to her. So we went out and sat in the hall and I told her what happened. I told her that it was shaking my faith because, we pray and fast for God to save her, but if He already has a plan, then what's the use? She said she understood. And she said that, like 3 times, and she said it would shake her faith too. Then she mentioned a scripture, D&C 121: 7-8. She repeated herself twice on the "And if ye shall endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high." part, so I think she was trying to get a message across. She then said something I will never, ever, ever, ever forget. But I'm gonna tell you when I bare my testimony at the bottom of this blog post :) Because it's part of it. She also said another thing that I won't ever forget. She said "I think that sometimes, when we are like this, our prayers get a little bit selfish. We think that we need someone here so bad, that that's all we focus on. I think you might want to change your prayers  little bit to, instead of praying to keep her here, pray that His will be done and that you will have the strength to get through it. That's why we have the Holy Ghost, is to comfort us." What she said changed my perspective on everything. I went back into my dorm and started reading that verse again in my scriptures. I sat there for a while and cried, then I prayed to Heavenly Father that his will be done, and if He needs her, I'll get through it with a smile. Dixie then came into my room to put us to bed, she gave me another hug and I thanked her, then we went to bed.

Dixie :)

Friday morning was a really hard day to wake up. Because it was our last day there. We got dressed, had a group meeting with Dixie, then went to breakfast and our final speaker. Our final speaker was our camp director. She talked about being true daughters in His kingdom. We then had our final devotional and testimony meeting. It was intense. At the end, Dixie said "I'm going to play a song for you, and I don't know why, because it doesn't have a lot to do with what we're talking about (we were talking about being Daughters in His Kingdom), but I feel like someone in here needs this, and needs to hear it, so I'm going to play it." I can tell you, my friends, that person was me. The song was "Someone needs your Star" by Jenny Phillips. If I could tell you how unneeded I was feeling at that moment I would tell you. I honestly felt in that moment of weakness, I didn't know if my Heavenly Father cared about me. Then we had testimony meeting. I wasn't planning on getting up, but my mind stopped working so my legs worked on their own. I walked up, tears already flowing down my face as the testimony's we had been hearing from the 5 girls that went before me were so amazing.
So here is my testimony. It's changed since last time, I promise.

"I don't usually cry, but the spirit is so strong that I can't help it. You come here, for five days, and you get so attached to everyone that you can't help but cry when they cry, or smile when they smile. Last night when I called home I got the news that my friend who has cancer is practically dying. They told her that she would be lucky to live a week if she could make it through today. And I talked to Dixie about this last night, and she told me something that's changed me. She said, "Think of how much you need her." and I told her, "I need her so bad." She then said, "If you need her that much, think of how much her Heavenly Father needs her." This absolutely changed my perspective as I've known this girl for my entire life, but Heavenly Father has known her and loved her the most since the beginning. And I bet that He's aching for us to come home. He hurts when we feel pain and suffering and sometimes, he gets anxious, and needs you before some say that your time on Earth is through. I know how much I would miss her if she was gone, and then I think of my Father in Heaven, who knows us perfectly, who loves us perfectly. He would miss her so much more than I would. And I know that through Him and His plan, no matter what, it's going to be okay. I'm going to see her again no matter if He takes her now or later. I'll see her in Heaven. I know without a doubt that this church is the truth. I came her without a testimony, or a very strong testimony. I found I didn't want to go to church, I didn't want to feel the spirit. That's all changed. I found myself lost in the spirit of God. And I'm so grateful for this. I'm so grateful to strengthen my little faith into something that I can no longer contain inside of me. I love God so much. I know the love a feel for Him, and that's only a sliver of what He feels for me. I love Him. And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Dixie and I

Yeah... it sounds really dorky typing it up but hey, I know it. I had to get it out and if I was gonna get it out at testimony meeting, I was going to do it. After testimony meeting I pulled Dixie off to the side again and told her that they didn't think she was going to make it through the day. She just hugged me for a minute, then said that you have to find comfort in God. You have to turn to Him. She said "When life gets too hard to stand...kneel." And she told me just to be as happy as I can possibly be. I went to my dorm, she went to hers. I packed, went to the closing banquet, came back, packed some more, wrote my talk that I was supposed to give at the closing program that night on "Quest for Virtue". Then went to the closing program with my mama and papa :) Did my talk, 2nd in the program. When I came down I was sitting next to Dixie and she said "That was perfect." PERFECT! ME! PERFECT! Ha, ha, she's gonna be reading this and be like.. creeper weirdo.. but no, it really meant a lot to me that she said that. And she said it, like, 3 times. Felt good :) Then we finished up the program with a few more speakers and a song. The song was called "Happily Ever After" also by Jenny Phillips. It was really cool. I started like, crying when the song ended because I was sooooo sad to go home. It hurt. It honestly hurt to tell these girls goodbye. I love them so much. Dixie especially. She was really there for me when I needed her and I love her. She's much more than just a counselor to me :)





I can't wait until next year.

Little Miss Erika

More Sugar-Stuff

I thought I'd finally upload all of my Sugarpics and Sugarvids...  enjoy :) 

These are from our Jam Session the night before.. 












Along with these videos..
Stuck Like Glue
Already Gone

This is from our Jam Session with Jen, Jess, and Jess

This is me with PIGGY :) PIGGY goes around to a bunch of Sugarland concerts and stuff, his owner is one of the storm troopers that gets up on stage, you'd know what I'm talking about if you've been to a Sugarland concert...

 This is Holly & I signing the LMP Live Flag... it was for all of the LMP Live people to sign and then Jen gave it to Jennifer and she started getting all wet eyed :)

 Here is the LOVE flag that we made... Sugarland style. Again, one of those "you have to know what I'm talking about by going to a Sugarland concert" type things.

 Here is the LMP Flag again :)

This is Jen, Holly and I :)















Holly and I with the Sugar trucks.. fail.

More Sugar trucks :)

Waiting for our VIP passes :)













Waiting for our M&G!!!!!

 The concert :)

 Holly and I on the BIG SCREEN during Baby Girl!!!! Crying our eyes out :')

I promise more videos are coming later... having problems uploading them so I'll post those once we get them uploaded. 

You are loved. :) <3

Little Miss Erika

The night that could never happen.. happened.

Leg 5, Ohio.. Leg 6, Detroit.. Leg 7, Memphis.. Home?

We made it my friends. We made it home! I can't believe our trip is over. It's crazy. It makes me soooo sad.

So after the Sugarland concert, we stayed another night in our hotel at Auburn Hills, then left the next morning to drive 3 1/2 hours to Ohio. We saw the Kirkland Temple, drove around Cleveland, then went to our hotel in one of the suburbs off of Cleveland. We then ate dinner, dad took me out to a special place, because it was our, well, what we thought was, our last night of our trip. We went to the Melting Pot. It was sooooo good! Then we went back to the hotel, hung out for a while and went to bed. The next morning we got up, left Cleveland to drive back to Detroit for our flight home. Now this is a funny story...

So, we get to the airport, we're through security, everything, at our gate, they board the plane, we sit down, it's all normal and stuff. I'm like, practically crying because I hate leaving Detroit. Last time I cried, this time I was close to it, because I hate leaving Detroit. Any other trip I don't cry but Detroit.. with Jen, and Jess, and Jess, and Holly.. oh, it's the hardest take off I've ever been through. So honestly, I am praying to God that somehow our plane will have mechanical problems or something so that we don't have to take off. Seriously, 5 minutes later, we are taken off of the plane due to a leak of some sort of something. I laughed. I laughed soooo hard because I so couldn't believe that had just happened. Thank heaven that God answers prayers my friends :) Ohhh I love it. So then we were stuck at the Detroit airport for 3 hours.. waiting for our bags. Then we called the airline and got us rebooked on a layover flight through Memphis. I've always wanted to go to Memphis. So we then take the shuttle to our hotel for the night, go to bed, then get up at like, 5 the next morning to catch our 7:30 flight at the airport.

Our plane actually takes off this time. It wasn't as hard leaving Detroit when I was going somewhere I actually wanted to go, not just straight home. I was actually kind of excited. We land in Memphis, take the shuttle to the rental car place, rent, yeah, get this, a Chevy Silverado. Yeah baby! It was pretty sweet. So then we went to the Gibson Guitar Factory and watched them make the semi-hollow and hollow body guitars. It was dang cool. Then they let us play them, the ones fresh out of the factory. Ahhh! Heaven!! We were rockin' it. Then we went to Graceland, Sun Studio, ect. All the tourist destinations. Then we caught our 7:00 flight out of Memphis back home to Utah. Now we're home, alive, and well, but it's really weird. It's like, I have nothing to do with my life, ha, ha. I'm not working anymore since I don't have to earn $500, I'm not running around from place to place with my dad like we were on the trip. It's like.. well.. this is fun. Ha, ha, but on the upside I have started making Little Miss Project Live: Salt Lake City posters.. so if any of you are coming... you know who to find. It's going to be so amazing, I'm so excited to be a part of it.

Can't wait to hopefully see some of you there! Xox!

Little Miss Erika

Sugarland.... words can't describe it.

Wow! Today was by far the best day of my life.

So we get up early, around 6:15, shower, get dressed, and then I went over to Holly's hotel room to get ready. We did hair, put on makeup, ect. Then we left to the venue to watch the tour buses come in. We saw like 10 Sugar trucks and then like 6 tour buses.. so we didn't know which one Jen and K were on. Then Jen, Jess, and Jessica showed up so that we could start setting up for Little Miss Project Live. A few minutes later some stupid security guard shows up and tells us that the parking lot is closed and that we have to come back later. Please? If it's closed, how did we get in? On the email that we were send for VIP Passes it clearly says "Parking lot open all day." Yeah. We were pretty mad. So instead we came back to the hotel, and hung out and set up in the lawn area off of the lobby. That was the best. We were laughing insanely, Holly and I sung, we ate Cheetos, ect. It was the bomb. Then Jessica, Jess, and Jen all went back to the venue to see if it was open yet, they called us when they got there and they told us the venue wasn't open yet so Holly and I took a nap on her bed :) Then we got up, got ready all over again, and headed back down to the venue. We stopped at Jimmy John's along they way and ate lunch (I only ate like, a fourth of my turkey sandwich because I was so nervous.) Then we went to the venue! We set up LMPL stuff, tailgated, then Holly and I had to go get in line for our VIP!!!!! We went to this little room, talked for a bit, went to soundcheck! Eeep!!! In the middle of it Holly was looking down with her hand covering the side of her face. Jennifer Nettles saw and the conversation went a little like this:

Jen: "Miss, are you okay up there? Like, are you on the phone or did I do something wrong and you're calling the police? What's up?"
Holly: "No, it's just you!!!"
Jen: "Well I can deal with that. You sure you're alright?"
Holly: "How could I not be alright, I'm in Sugarland!"
Jen: "You got that right."

Ahhh we were freaking out! Well then soundcheck ended and we went back to our little VIP room for a while, then they did a raffle drawing and we got to do some Merch shopping. I got a T-shirt, guitar picks, a poster, and a tour book. I also got another tour book for Holly as I know she's been wanting it for a while :)

After that we pretty much just chilled and did LMPL stuff until our escort person took us down to the Sugarpit. We were in the pit two hours early to get our spot. They taped off the area for the VIPs so we wouldn't loose our spot during the Meet & Greet. At 7:30 we went over to the M&G area, and I started FREAKING out. It was CRAZY. I mean, I was about to meet the two people I've fantasized about for all of my life. We waited in like for like 10 minutes, and then they came out. We were at the back of the line so they came out like, right next to us. I won't lie. I started crying. Holly's like crying too and she's like, Erika, calm down. I told her to speak for herself. The line started moving pretty quickly. Holly went first out of our  ground, then me. Our conversation went a little like this:

I walk up to them crying
Jen: "Hi! How are you?"
Me: "Oh my gosh I can't believe this is happening"
Jen: "Aww, what your name sweetheart?"
Me: "Erika"
Jen: "Erika, well why don't you get on in here and we'll take a picture."
Me: "Okay.."
Kristian: (as I'm still crying) "You're alright girl, we've got you."
Me: "Thank you so much. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you for your music, for what you've created, just, thank you."
Jen: "Well I'm glad you like it, thank you."
Me: "I love you so much"
Jen: "I love you too baby. You get out there and have a fabulous show. Scream really loud, dance and sing at the top of your lungs and I'll be looking for you in the audience."
Me: "Will do! Thanks!"
Jen: "Alright, thanks honey."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
I still can't believe that just happened. It's like, that was so unreal. After I was done talking to them I walked over to Holly and she was like "Come here baby girl!" I just hugged her. I really, just cried and hugged her. And it was amazing. After I had hugged her like four times I was still crying and shaking and she was like "Oh stop baby, you're fine." And I'm like, "I'm fine, I just can't believe it. I can't believe this. With you. I can't."

After that we went back to the pit, got there right as the opening act was finishing. We stood there for maybe a half hour before Sugarland came on. When they came on I started BAWLING. I was like.... AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

They opened with All We Are, then did Stuck Like Glue (Holly, absolutely no one who knows me better :)) went through a few other songs, and then they did Little Miss. We successfully pulled off the biggest Little Miss Project Live - ever. Jen even acknowledged it. She gave us kudos on Sugarlandmusic.com!!! http://www.sugarlandmusic.com/news/39522

Little Miss hit home tonight. I've never done it live, so it was amazing. To look out over all the venue, everyone holding up their signs, it was amazing. I started filming the first part, but I just couldn't. It was too amazing. Too amazing. Too powerful to capture in a video. When I looked over, Holly was crying. It made me burst into tears all over again. She later said "Your sign was depressing, I looked over at it and I like, started bawling." I will post pictures of my sign tomorrow so you can read what it says for yourself. I was bawling because of Holly's sign so I guess it worked out. Her's said something about how her mom hasn't been around since she was two years old. At the end of this song, Kristian came over and gave her a guitar pick. She gave it to me!!!!!! I love her!!!!!! I will treasure that forever and ever. After Little Miss they played Baby Girl. I called my mom during it and just cried. I miss her. A week without her is too long. Holly called her mom... her mom that her sign was about. She was crying, I was crying. Then Jen put the concert on hold, took the phone from Holly and talked to her mom. Holly and I were on the big screen, crying together at the fact that Jennifer Nettles just spoke to Holly's mom in the middle of such an emotional moment. Tears were flying and it was amazing.

After the concert ended all of the Little Misses got together and took photos, ect. It was fun. Holly got another T-shirt and then we left. We met my dad in the parking lot of a Rite Aid. I got out of the car along with Holly. Gave my stuff to my dad, and just grabbed Holly. Grabbed her and wouldn't let go. I just told her thank you, told her I loved her to death, and then she walked away. The hardest step I've ever taken was walking away from her to my car. Because I know. I know this may be the last time I see her. She turns 18 in January and I'll only be 14. She's not going to love me her whole life and I know that. I'm coming to terms with it. That was the hardest step I've ever taken. I'm crying now as I think about it. I cried the whole way home. I love her so much and this weekend has been the most amazing experience of my life. She is the most amazing person and I can't live without her.

Nothing can beat this feeling I have right now. Nothing can describe it. No one can comprehend unless you have been through exactly what I have today. I have been through every emotion possible and I loved every part of it.

I'll blog more about the concert tomorrow, post pics and videos.

I love you.

I hope you know that.

J&K... I love you to death. I love you so much it hurts. Thank you, again, for everything.

Holly.... Gosh, I can't even begin to tell you how much I love you. You are my hero, my idol, I love you and I will ALWAYS be your #1 fan.

Jen, Jess, Jessica, Erica, ect..... thank you for making this night amazing :) I love you guys.

Lots of love tonight....

Forever, Little Miss Erika

Leg 4 - Sugarland!!! :)

So today I slept in real late because I was real tired. Got up, showered, got ready, put my make up on, ha, ha. First time I've done that, like, the entire trip. Then we went to tour this old boat that's on tour right outside the door of our hotel. We took the DPM into Greektown and ate at this really awesome barbeque place. I had the ribs :) Messy! Ha, ha, but so good! Then we had chocolate covered pretzels at this little cafe. Yum! I'm going to be so fat when this trip if over. Then we took the DPM back to our hotel, packed up, checked out of that hotel and checked into our other hotel in Auburn Hills. We switched because this one is closer to the venue for the concert. Now my dad is in the living room visiting with a friend that came to visit him and I'm blogging. Later we are going to go shopping with a $25 gift certificate that my dad surprised me with, and then we're going to eat, explore around a little bit, and then Holly will be here and we will party! She is staying in the room right across from us. I'm so excited! We are going to have a jam session tonight :) Yayyy! Then it's off to bed for our concert tomorrow! We are rising early... leaving the hotel at 6:30 to catch the tour buses outside of the venue! Eeep! Yeah, we're pretty Sugar-loyal. Then we come back to the hotel for breakfast, then back out again for our M&G! So dang excited I can't even tell you!! Jen, Holly and I all have Meet & Greets. But Ali, Jess, Sara, and a bunch of other people I've never met before but absolutely love to death are coming :) I'm so excited! It's going to be such a fun, sugarfilled, amazing day. I will die :)

Love you all!

Little Miss Erika

Holly...

Oh wow. Today was sooooo fun!!! So.. we started the day in Canada, drove around Windsor for... a long time. Then came back, went to the hotel, got ready for HOLLY!! Eeek! Then left, ate lunch on the way, and got to the Twelve Oaks Mall early, and waited in the food court for Holly. Oh. I was shaking. Like. I thought I was going to explode. She's my IDOL. I still can't believe last time happened... and now it's happened again.. and it hasn't even ended yet.. and it's so crazy.

So we get to the mall, my dad and I are sitting down, and I'm NERVOUS. Like, nervous. Holly walk up and I see her and I'm like.. wow.. it's her. And I sat there for a minute just.. literally staring at her because I couldn't believe it was her. I then got up, every fiber in my being screaming not to because I couldn't believe it was her, I started walking to her, called her name, she looked up at me and I ran to her. I hugged her so hard I think I squeezed her guts out. Wow. I was probably beaming so hard she thought I was a crazy lady. I mean, wow. It was like. this is happening. This is really happening. This is really, impossibly happening.

We walked around the mall for a while, she bought a pair of earrings and a smoothie. We stopped at the Brookstore... oh man. Probably in those massage chairs for an hour. Then we went to the Apple store and played around with the Apple stuff. We then went to the pet store, looked at the dogs :) Made me miss my puppies! Then we went to the Bath&Body Works, and sprayed on every fragrance, smelled every bottle of lotion, and found Holly's favorite fragrance in a cologne for her boyfriend ("And you can smell like sex too!!!" -Holly, ohhh hahahhaha). Then we went back to our Brookstore.. sat in there for another hour ("I feel like I've been beaten") in those massage chairs. Went back to the Apple store and we Facebook'd each other like... a foot away from each other ("Country girl, shake it for me"). We went to Zales to have Holly's finger measured for a ring her boyfriend is getting her, then went back to Bath&Body Works, then went to a candle store. Yeah, we're that dorky :) To smell every candle. Yeah. Every single one. In the whole store.Then we had to go meet my dad, which was a sad moment. Then we met her mom and discussed the rest of our weekend. So excited! I can't wait for tomorrow, and tomorrow's tomorrow. It's going to be so amazing.

Holly is just the most amazing person. She's 17, I mean, and she hangs out with me? And I'm 13! That's amazing. AMAZING. She's so special and perfect and amazing and I love her so much. She inspires me, she makes me laugh, makes me smile, makes me cry, makes me enjoy life so much more than I would without her. I know that someday she's going to go her way and I'm going to go mine, but thank heaven for letting her be in my life right now. And I will hold this moment in time forever. I will always love her, no matter what happens, she is my life and I don't ever want to let her go. She's my big sister :)

I love her.

I always, forever and ever, will love her.

Xoxo

Little Miss Erika

("Here, smell this, it smells like a tootsie roll!")

Leg 3... MICHIGAN!!!!!! And the 69th floor.

We made it! Safely! We are here! You know, it's like this big sigh of relief when the plane touched down and we stepped out into Michigan... you get this feeling of.. we're here. And nothing can go wrong now. No more worries about if we're going to actually make it here or not.. if it's going to be like last time where we have to shorten our trip and rearrange everything. No, that's all behind us and we're actually here this time and it feels so amazing.

We woke up early this morning, went to breakfast, then went down to the river. We took the Chicago River Architect Cruise, really fun. You could see all of Chicago from a boat, which was really cool, and learn about the different styles of buildings and the history behind it. We then took the water taxi down to Navy Pier, went to Bubba Gump... (Holly, I had to :P) then walked around Navy Pier a bit. We took the water taxi back to our hotel and then packed up for the flight out. We left our hotel, drove to the airport, boarded our flight, came over to Michigan, landed, got our bags, then went and got the rental car. I wanted to F-150 they had there but dad said otherwise.. so we got an orange Dodge Charger! Pretty cool... not as cool as much truck though :) We drove to our hotel, got dinner, got dessert, then checked in to our room on the... yeah, you guessed... SIXTY NINTH FLOOR. Have I ever told you how much I HATE heights? It's cool though... beautiful view of Canada... but it's scary, ha, ha. We're one floor from the top. Eeeep!

Well, now we're watching America's Got Talent and getting ready for bed... got to get to bed at a decent time so I'm all fresh to see Holly tomorrow!! Eeeek! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. It's so amazing. I never thought this would happen and now this is the second time... amazing. So excited.

Hope you all are wonderful :)

Little Miss Erika

Leg 2 - Chicago

Whoot whoot! We made it!

We left Milwaukee around 10, drove 2 hours to Chicago, then drove back another hour to out "hotel" that wasn't really our hotel.. drove an hour back into Chicago but by that time it was rush hour so it took us like an extra hour.. finally got to our actual hotel, the Renaissance downtown. We got upgraded into a suite on the 18th floor.. 2 rooms, 1 1/2 bath, I have a sleeper couch with my own TV, it's nice. Checked in, went to the club lounge to get some drinks, then went to the Macy's on State to get a cupcake my Young Women leader told me to get. Then we went down to the Shed Aquarium, saw some pretty cool exhibits, then took the ferry across the lake into Navy Pier. Walked back to the hotel, ate dinner at the club lounge (lamb!), went down to the room and watched America's Got Talent. Went back to the club lounge for dessert, then came back down here and we're going to bed! Excited for the river cruise tomorrow along with the flight to Detroit! Eeek! SO excited. I'm going to be with Holly in 2 freakin' days! CRAAZY! I can't wait :) I love that girl to death.

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend, make it a fabulous week!

Little Miss Erika

Milwaukee

WHOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Leg one of our Michigan trip is finally HERE and almost OVER!!! Crazy, isn't it? Wow! It's been soooo fun!

We arrived in the Chicago ORD airport on Sunday in the afternoon. We drove 2 hours to Milwaukee, checked in to our hotel, got settled, then went to my cousin's house for dinner. We had dinner there, I played guitar for her, we drove around Milwaukee a little bit, then went to the lake shore for fireworks! An hour long show! We had really good seats right on the water edge on the other side of the lake from the fireworks. But they were still close enough you could see the high ones really well but not so much the lower ones. It was pretty! We then dropped Katie (my cousin) off at her apartment and went back to our hotel. Slept in late, got up around 10 this morning, went to breakfast in the hotel, showered, got ready, and drove into downtown Milwaukee. Wandered a bit, saw the sites, then went to pick up Katie to go to this really cool old mansion of these old dead people. It was cool. Then we went down to the water and rode the paddle boats! They're more work than they look like.. ha, ha. We then went and got a super amazing hot chocolate at this place called Caribou. Yes, hot chocolate in the middle of summer. We explored this little town about 45 minutes out of Milwaukee, then went to dinner at this little restaurant/pub that was super good. Dropped Katie off at her apartment, then went and chilled at the hotel for a while. Got a call from Holly finalizing our MI plans!!! Eeeeepp!!! SO excited. Watched about 20 different firework shows from our hotel window! I love the Fourth of July. Now we're watching the Capitol Fourth on TV and getting ready for bed while I'm blogging :) We drive back down to Chicago tomorrow, spend a night there and then fly out to Detroit on Wednesday!!!

So excited.
So.
So.
So.
So excited.

Love you guys!

Hope you had a very safe and fun Fourth!
Hope you blew things up responsibly ;)

Erika

I hope you dance..

Stadium of Fire. It's something we go to every year, well, for the past two at least. Every year with my girl, Vivian, And every year I have this major countdown to it as it's that one night each year when everything, absolutely everything, is perfect.

Vivian came around 7. Ah. It was so good to see her. I haven't seen her since April, so I was pretty happy she was able to come again to SoF this year. We left a few minutes later, my mom dropped us off at the stadium, we got in our seats about 40 minutes early. As we were waiting, I gave her a little surprise that I've had since like.. May, maybe. It was a bracelet that had a little heart charm, a treble clef charm, and some of the lyrics from the song "I Hope you Dance" by Lee Ann Womack on the third charm. Oh it was pretty. And I think she really liked it. I hope. I videoed that song the day after I got the bracelet for her at a performance I had. Yeah, in front of 100ish people, I dedicated a song to my girl and got all worked up singing it :) I may have to post it.

The show started and the opening acts came on, then David Archuleta, and after David, Vivian and I traded seats with my father who was sitting in the VIP sections. Oh it was cool. We were close. Well, not like close close but closer than we were before. It was harder to hug her around the chairs though.

Brad was aboslutely fabulous. He always is such a wonderful performer, relates to the audience, has amazing guitar skills. I love him. He was fabulous. He makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you smile, he puts you through everything when he's up on that stage. I loved it.

We had VIP tickets to the "after-party". That was a waste. Ha, ha, I mean, all that people did in there was eat. I'm not going to eat a chicken sandwich at 11:00 at night.  But it killed some time so in my opinion it was totally worth it.

Then we went to the other after-party... the party after the after party. Now that is where the party is! Ha, ha, everyone was dancing in the middle of the road. It was great. I've never seen Vivian shake it like that.. ha, ha, ha.

We walked home.. the long way. :) We killed so much time that we walked in the door at 1 in the morning. And then she didn't leave until like 20 minutes later because I wouldn't let her go. I hate that part of the night. It kills me to see her leave. Kills me to see anyone leave. But it gets easier when I realize how incredibly blessed and lucky I am to even have her to miss.

Just watch me say this and it won't ever happen, but oh I hope it does. We talked about Nashville. She's never been, I've never been. She wants to go, I want to take her. Can you imagine? How insane that would be? I would die. From laughter. :) Oh man. But hey, for her even to say she wants to go with me, wow. That right there means the world so I think I'm okay if we don't go.

I love that girl so dang much it hurts. I can't wait to see her again. She's one of those people you just get a rush with. A total rush that you can't even breathe when she hugs you because it's the most amazing thing you've ever felt. I love her more than anyone in this world. I will always.

I love her.

Little Miss Erika

Wow.

Tonight was insane. Absolutely insane. I've had a countdown on my wall for this night for over 7 months... and it feels really, really, really weird it's over but it definitely lived up to every expectation I had for it and more. The entertainment was great, Vivian is always just.. well, she's Vivian. I love the girl but I swear sometimes I want to kill her ;) The night was full of after-after-after parties, flinging ice cream, attacks from trees, conversations with Angel Moroni on the top of the Provo temple, feet on the sidewalk, dirt, spiders, we talk about anything you could imagine and more. I love that girl.

It's late (well, technically early) and I leave early tomorrow for our trip, so I better get to bed. I'll post videos later. I didn't get much but at least I have something to remember this night forever with.

Have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend everybody. I love you! Stay safe!

Erika

PS - Vivian, I will always always always always always... love you more!!! :)