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Write Me Maybe?? ;)

June 9, 2013
This is it! I would LOVE to hear from y'all while I'm on my mission!!! 
Seriously though. 
Keep these addresses in a safe little spot and when you're bored on a Sunday afternoon, think of your good friend Sister Blackner who is out serving the Lord and write to her! 
SHARE SOME LOVE! Letters are my favorite :) Emails are nice, but a real handwritten letter is the best!

Blog with weekly updates:
sisterblackner.blogspot.com

Email address:
mary.blackner@myldsmail.net

MTC Address (June 12-July23):
Sister Mary Abigail Blackner
JUL23 AL-BIRM
2013 N 900 E Unit 307
Provo, UT 84602

Mission Home Address (July 2013-Dec 2014):
Sister Mary Blackner
Alabama Birmingham Mission
3100 Lorna Rd Ste 102
Birmingham, AL 35216

or you can even use dearelder.com

I love you all and I'll see ya in 18 months!! :)

Farewell! See ya next December!

I could not have asked for a more beautiful and fun day for my farewell. I feel so blessed to have so many amazing friends and family!

My morning started out by getting ready for church and simultaneously skyping Greta (in Rome) and Emily (in Colorado). It was so good to talk with them and was the last time we got to skype Emily before she went into the MTC. I even played my musical number for them!

like Greta said, thank goodness for modern technology!
I went through my talk and practiced my song a few more times and then we left for church.

The joke at Ward Counsel last week was that we increased the ward's attendance by at least 100. I really feel so blessed to have so much family that lives nearby and to also have lived in the same town and ward my whole life where I've grown up with so many of the same people and that they were able to come support me. Although I was a little sad that a few of my best friends weren't able to be there, it all turned out ok! Right after I played my musical number, Elder Call asked that my parents come up to bear their testimonies and that was so nice because it gave me a chance to compose myself and get ready for my talk. Plus it was so awesome to hear from my parents. I love them so much! My talk went well and I think the overall verdict is...I'm ready to go serve! If you would like to read my talk it's posted on here, my new mission blog, where my weekly letters will uploaded!

After church we went straight to Grandma's for dinner! I even got to pick it out...ham, mashed potatoes, salad, fruit, corn, rolls, and mini cheesecakes for dessert!

Miss Susannah surprised me! I had no idea she was coming and was so glad she was able to make it all the way from Bellingham! I sure will miss her :)







and to add to the fun, I got a shot!





I just love my cute family! You can't tell in the picture but we matched :) pink and black


all the cousins!

It was such a special day and made me so excited to be a full-time sister missionary!

As of Lately...

This might be picture overload, but these past two weeks have been filled with lots and lots of fun! And since  this will be one of my last blog posts for a while I thought it would be important to catch up!

A few weekends ago we went down to Vancouver to visit my grandpa! It was so good to see him before I left.

  This was taken on the day of my farewell. But I think I'll do a separate post for that :)


 
On Memorial Day we went up to Seattle for the Mariner's game!
me at the gum wall :)

cousins :)


the crew!




my mom and I were SO lucky and had great seats. I seriously love the atmosphere of baseball games and it was awesome! The M's won 9-0 and even hit 4 home runs!

this was after they had already made fun of me for my awesome shirt that I was so excited to wear!

there's some good color coordination!



I got tagged in this picture on facebook with this caption...
"Your weekend room at The Shack awaits! A family weekend away before Herman Mary leaves might be fun :)!" Kenz and I said, Ok deal! Uncle Greg and Aunt Debbie were so nice to let us stay and it was awesome. We definitely could have spent a whole week there! We played games, watched movies, went four-wheeling ALL day, shot guns, had a nice view of the lake from the window, and got to relax! It was a blast!



Jordan and I getting ready to race

checked that one off my bucket list!


Dad teaching me how

skeet shooting. on my third try I finally hit one!

Kenz and I decided to have a countdown before I left by taking a picture together every day. I only have a couple and we might of missed a few days but here they are!

10 days left!


9 days left!



6 days left!
 We took some fun mission pictures on thursday and Kenz joined in at our last venue


We traveled down to Portland this weekend for Emily's farewell! I am so glad we went and that we got to see her! She is so sweet and the people in Honduras are so lucky to have her! She is an amazing friend and I sure will miss her!


I also got to go to the Portland Temple with my mom, Aunt Elaine, and Uncle Ron. It was so cool to see inside the beautiful place where my parents got married! It's gorgeous and I seriously love being at the temple. It was so fun to spend time with family and Uncle Ron even made my two favorites...popcorn with lots of butter and salt, and berry milkshakes! :)


This past week we went to the Rainier's baseball game, enjoyed some beautiful warm weather, played tennis, hung out with my cousin Ben for the last time for two years, skyped Greta, finished up mission shopping and packed, went to a lesson with the sister missionaries in my ward, and watched a few movies. It's been a fun week filled with lots of family time and I can't wait to leave in just two short days! 

NO FUN!

May 31, 2013

Last One Gone

May 29, 2013
Sister Emily Lloyd enters the MTC today! I couldn't be more excited for her since this is the moment she has been waiting for her whole life!!!

I can't believe two years has come and gone and I couldn't be more grateful for her friendship. My BYU experience would have been a whole different story without her. And lesssbe honest, I don't think I could do without her.

She is there for me 100% of the time and it was so fun living near each other and working together this year.

Emily is such a great example to me and I love how much we learned from each other.

We enjoyed doing homework together, sharing recipes, taking pictures, playing games, talking about school and good books, watching movies, and lots and lots of laughing.

Emily is the best listener and is so good at giving good advice. She is so thoughtful and is always serving those around her.

And for all of these reasons, she is going to be an amazing missionary. I'm SO ecstatic to write her letters as we embark on this next chapter of our lives, sharing the gospel in the eastern United States.

She is one of the greatest friends a girl could ask for and I sure will miss her!!!


Children's Literature

May 28, 2013
So the week before finals, I took a final for my children's lit class that I had been taking online through BYU independent study. It was a fun class but super time consuming because, well, reading takes time haha! I had to read 33 picture books and 24 chapter books.

Keep in mind I've done a lot of reading in my life and for this class we weren't allowed to read books we've already read so I had to pick out new ones which was sometimes kind of difficult. And at this point, some of the story lines just all kind of run together.

So I sit down with my test and one of the questions that it asks me for the short answer are to name 2 books from each genre that I would recommend as a teacher.

Doesn't seem too difficult right? Well guess what. My mind went completely blank. You would think that I would be able to remember at least some of the books that I've read, even if they weren't for the class.

I ended up doing well on the exam but I walked out of that testing center thinking that I needed to come home and write down some of my favorites for future reference since I will be a teacher someday. So here I am.

Picture Books
Alphabet
The Turn-Around Upside-Down Alphabet Book by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Chica Chica Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

Counting
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow

Mother Goose
Ring O' Roses: A Nursery Rhyme Picture Book by L. Leslie Brooke
Tomie dePaola's Mother Goose by Tomie dePaola

Concept
White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Beker
Click, Clack, Splish, Splash by Doreen Cronin
Click Clack Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle

Wordless
Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola

Storybooks
Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Berry
A Pocket Full of Kisses by Audrey Penn
Dr Suess!
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
Lily's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

Traditional Fantasy
Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly by Simms Taback
Rumpelstiltskin by Paul O. Zelinsky
East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Peter Christen Asbjornsen
Arrow to the Sun by Gerald McDermott
The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin

Modern Fantasy
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Ella Enchanted
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Contemporary Realistic Fiction
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm
Frindle by Andrew Clements
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Holes by Louis Sachar
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff
Esperanza Rising by Pam Ryan
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Last Shot
The Wanderer by Sharon Creech
Love, Ruby Lavender
The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place by E.L. Konigsburg
Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee
Peter and the Starcatchers
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles by
The Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Adventure/Historical Fiction
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
The Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm
Picture Book Biographies by David A. Adler
A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck
Magic Tree House Series by Mary Pope Osbourne
Mutiny's Daughter by Ann Rinaldi
Nine Days A Queen by Ann Rinaldi

Informational
Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride by Munoz Ryan
Children of the Dust Bowl by Jerry Stanley
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Lynn Curlee

Poetry
Shel Silverstein - A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends
A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

For Older Readers
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collings
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Well here's just a few. There are many more fantastic books I've read! And I'll probably add more on here once I remind myself of some of the ones I missed.

McKenzie Ellice


I think this pretty much sums it up. It was an absolute blast having Kenzie at school with me this year. We did pretty much everything together! Seriously though, there was rarely a day I didn't see her. And if that was the case, there was a darn good reason! Such as... we had a lot of homework (sometimes that didn't even stop us), or the bus wasn't running because it was a Sunday. Buttt that's about it. She was in Heritage Halls so much that people a) thought she lived in building 27 b) thought she was in our ward c) just thought we were best friends and had no clue we were actually related haha! good times.

She became the extra roommate, the adopted fhe sister, and the graphic designer coworker and we couldn't have lived without her! 

Simply put, Kenzie is a bundle of FUN! She certainly is the life of the party and is always up for anything!

She was never afraid to go knock on anyone's door and just invite ourselves in because lesssbe honest "who wouldn't want to hang out with us?" haha! Which was probably a good thing because it made me extra social :)

She is so talented and I'm in love with:
~her cute handwriting 
~her ability to create things 
~all of her designs and pictures 
~how she can make anything picture worthy 
~how she's always smiling and happy 
~how she looks like a model all the time  
~how she embraces her height 
~how she is so outgoing and can get along with anyone 
~how good she is at sports, especially tennis and basketball 
~her pinterest addiction
~how interested she is in my life and well-being
~how she always has an opinion
~how bold she is
~her cute personality and how she's "just friends" with all the boys even though I think they secretly all like her
~what a good babysitter she is and how she really connects with kids
~her great advice, even if I don't want to hear it
~how supportive she is
~how close we became this past year even though we shared a room our whole lives
~once she finds a song she likes she listens to it over and over and over again and never gets sick of it
~her love of "hot men" 
~she's always there to tell me when I do something stupid or when my clothes don't match or when I look like a bum haha
~our favorite movies and how we loved having movie nights and playing games
~how we can get pretty weird around each other
~how she always gives me compliments and appreciates my talents
~how sometimes she treats me like a little kid since she is "bigger" than me, especially when she's teaching me spanish words
~how we can always laugh with each other
~how we are on the same wavelength a lot of the time
~how we can tell each other anything
~how much we've grown up together
~how she learned the ropes of the bus and didn't let anything stop her from seeing me all the time
~how she still manages to get everything done even though she watches endless amounts of TV shows haha
~all her phrases that have rubbed off on me ex: que asco!, we're bomb!, ok deal!, that's real!

Kenzie is the best and I could not ask for a better sister and friend. I'm gonna miss her a ton but she has promised to keep me updated on the real world and make a list of songs and movies for me to catch up on :) The real question might be if she's gonna be able to live without me haha but I think I've taught her well and college should be just as great for her next year. She just isn't allowed to get married in the next 18 months!

It's kind of like we're a package deal. You can't get one without the other and I keep thinking about the song from White Christmas...
Oh, help the mister who comes between me and my sister
And oh, help the sister who comes between me and my man!
Those days are ahead of us haha ;)

I LOVE YOU KENZIEBEE!

Get ready for picture overload! Here's some of our adventures this past year. But first, let's start where it all began...
throwback! besties ever since we were little girls :)


basketball games

visiting Grandma T in Salt Lake!

she loves me! maybe a little too much...

we made so many friends at school! love skype dates!


we loved babysitting baylee and her cute siblings!


she has been so supportive and excited about my mission call!

we loved going rock climbing with our friends David,  Joey, and Spencer!

i'm always on the left. it's her "good side"



we love football games!


my farewell!



she loves to showoff how tall she is! and adds the heels just for good measure :)

web cam pics!

she even let me be in her senior pictures!


she LOVES when I curl her hair

swag/sassy/attitude with her partner in crime

we love our footie pajamas!

we played basketball in the freezing cold snow

we went to the phantom of the opera

classic seattle picture

and...I would say we come from a pretty cute family!
#5th tribe #lovebeingablackner #momslips #dadsblueeyes #adorethem