Phone in critical condition

This:

+
This:
= Bad news!
Ironically however, I put it in the dryer to try and save it :) I will let you know if it wakes up from its coma tomorrow.

Teacher teach thy self

Being around family is so great. I think that anyone who knows me really well knows how much I love my family and miss them when I am away from them. I even cry about it. But there is nothing like being with your family that can make you see the many flaws in yourself. I don't know how being around friends allows you to magically be completely oblivious, but I think I spend most of my time at college being completely oblivious, maybe that is just because I have been blessed with some really patient and flexible people. But interactions with my family almost always "invite" me to see how massive and cumbersome my pride is that nearly always with me.

Throughout my entire life people have been telling me that I think too much. It is probably true, although I hate it when people say that. One of the many products of all my thinking is that I am one of the most opinionated people I know. I think that I know what to do in every situation, and I usually think that my way is better/more efficient than everyone's. I question everything, and am often hyper-rational. I do change my mind quite easily, as long as the other point of view has a valid, rational, logical argument (which is often subjective and therefore a slightly ridiculous expectation). Really, to me the purpose of all this thinking is to avoid mistakes and trouble - to be better at stuff - and that's all.

However, more and more often in my life lately I realize that all of this know-it-all attitude is really not very helpful for anything truly important in life. I have made some incredibly stupid decisions from my rational process of thinking. Usually when it comes to interacting with other people.

In high school, one day Lauren got mad at me for where I hung my towel in the bathroom - she didn't like it. And of course, since I know everything, I gave her this big speech about choosing to have a good relationship with people instead of choosing to have your way to show people that they are more important to you than being right is. It was a pretty good point I think (ha ha :)) if only I had learned it myself.

So this Christmas, I would like to apologize, not really because of some terrible situation/s, I don't want everyone thinking I have been fighting with people all the time, because that is not the case, but just because I have been enlightened and humbled by life in general. To Lauren (thanks for putting up with me, and for fighting back), to Andrea, to my whole family, and to a bunch of other people for situations both incredibly significant and fairly inconsequential, I am sorry. I am a complete and total idiot sometimes. Maybe a lot of times.

Its a lame excuse, I think that I escape to logic to avoid feelings because I find mine to be too intense and sometimes painful for me to want to put up with on a frequent basis. For those of you who have seen The Blind Side, I am a lot like Sandra Bullock's character in some ways - I'm bossy, and I will save face in an emotional moment, but then run to the car and cry.

The point is that I'm going to try to work on it. The teacher is going to try to teach herself.

Equivalents to Happy Pills

1. If you have not been to the website mylifeisaverage.com, go there now. It is guaranteed to make you smile even if you originally totally don't feel like doing so.

2. Way funny roommates. They are the best!

3. Ben & Jerry's

4. Going to the gym way late at night. It makes you feel so much more hard-core than everyone else :)

5. Spending money :) It is amazing what a 2$ "splurge" can do for your soul!

6. Church stuff. I just went to the Christmas devotional, and it was awesome!

Busy

I love the days when I am so busy that I run instead of walk from location to location, I don't have time to even brush my hair, and when my heart pounds, racing against the clock and responding to the excitement of trying to beat all odds that say I won't be able to get everything done that I need to. Today is one of those days :)

Thoughts

1. The most awesome song randomly came on my ipod last night at the gym, its called Come In or Stay Out by Parachutes and the Heyday. I have no idea where it came from, but it was perfect. I'm including it on my playlist to the right.

2. Last night I dreamed about gymnastics again. I keep doing that lately which I don't usually do. I wonder why that is (besides the fact that I still miss it sometimes). I also dreamed that Andrea's baby was a boy. But I am pretty sure that is because we have been calling it Merlin the whole time.

3. I vacuumed my apartment right up until 12:00 a.m. at which it was just too rude to continue. But I love clean floors, and I had just replaced the belt on our vacuum.... so I just had to!

4. I love getting long voice-mails on my phone. If you ever have a story or something that you want to say to someone but no one is answering their phone, just leave it on my answering machine. I will call you back and we will pick up the conversation right where the message left off. Its so convenient!

5. I love that Audrey told me to eat breakfast as she was leaving this morning, in kind of a concerned voice :) She is the best, and truly, its the most important meal of the day! And I don't usually eat much for breakfast...

6. I put three hundred Christmas lights on a four foot tall tree that is in my apartment. And I'm not even done! I need at least fifty more, but since they only sell them in units of one hundred, it looks like my tree is just going to be extra sparkly :) I am a girl after my mother's heart.

7. I keep having this numb tingly feeling in a certain spot in my back randomly throughout the day for the past several days. Oh the mysteries of life that will never be solve. The fact that I felt like (as I told Audrey this morning) my contact was "tickling my eyeball" also falls under this category of mysteries.

8. Candles are the greatest things ever. Fake tree + candle that smells like pine = pretty much the same experience as the real thing. Plus I like to put them between me and the window to fight the draft air coming from those poorly insulated areas. Also, they can create endless fun when you decide to burn about one hundred matches ten at a huge flaming time. Its no secret that I am a little bit of a pyro :)

9. I wear boots with skinny jeans every single day to school. And I love it! For everyone who thinks they are unflattering, at least my feet are dry and warm and my pants aren't soaking up frozen liquid higher and higher up my legs as the day goes on. Deal with it.

My lovers and fun

Me and my roommates and our adopted roommates from across the hall had so many activities to go to this past weekend! Friday night we went to a party, which was super fun (see pictures of jumping on the trampoline in dresses), and Saturday we went to Temple Square with the ward and then went to Gateway. Yesterday for FHE we got to go to the top of the inside of the BYU bell tower, where our FHE dad played the bells for us and we sang along. :) I never imagined I would get to do anything like that. Totally awesome! Also, guess who is unhappy about the snow? :)

Cousins

Gina came to Utah, and a bunch of us cousins met at Rachel's house and had dinner and played with the the kids, and it was so much fun! I love my cousins, and they all have absolutely adorable children! I should have taken a million pictures, but I was busy :) I held 3 month old Gibson for forty-five mins and it was the best! He is so smiley! Anyway, I am so glad we got to see each other, especially Gina, because it has been about three years! Love you all!

Hey guess what

I might have made-up with my camera (see the post below), but I broke up with my boyfriend... As someone wisely put it, not everyone can handle a Doxey. And since I just talked about him in a post, I figured I had to put this on here to clear up any confusion... and hey, now y'all can set me up with yummy bachelors! Happy matchmaking!

I've made-up with my camera

So for the past forever, I haven't bothered taking pictures except in rare instances because my camera is not the best. My old one was stolen while I was on study abroad. We were in Rome I believe, and we went to Sorrento the next day where I was forced to buy a ridiculously overpriced point and shoot that needs converters to charge here in America. But anyway, I have been thinking to myself for a long time that I wanted a better camera before I began taking pictures as a habit, which I still plan on doing, but for right now I am going to count my blessings that I have any kind of camera and repent for my ingratitude.
The point is that I went through my pictures the other day, and I found some pretty awesome pictures of the newest temples in Utah that I have taken with my cute little red point and shoot. Clearly I am not as bad off as I imagine. Also, I would like to note that for the pics of the Draper Temple, I was holding a baby in one arm the entire time. (There are 3 new posts below this, I broke them up so as not to make one ridiculously long one while I was catching up.)

Surgery

So my dad had his knee scoped the day before Thanksgiving. It was very interesting to see the doctor as the patient. He never said that he was nervous, but he did call me twice several days before to have me tell him how my experience was with my knee surgery. Also, he invited me to come to the surgery center before he went under the knife. The doctors and nurses were all teasing him a lot, and we generally had a great time! Except for Dad when he woke up probably. Not that he complained. He is not a complainer, which I am proud of. For the sake of dignity, I won't post the picture of his knee being shaved.... :)

Hot Springs

On the way down to St. George, Tyler, Lauren and I stopped at these fabulous hot springs in Meadow. They are privately owned, and there are no signs for how to get there, but they must be listed somewhere online maybe, because Tyler and his friend once saw two naked Europeans there.... but otherwise, you kind of need to know someone who knows how to get there.
Anyway, as you can tell by the picture of Tyler in the water, they are perfectly clear and steamy hot. What you can't tell by the picture is that they are also a mile deep. Tyler was smart to tell me only after we had gotten out that a scuba diver had died in them because he went too far down and ran out of oxygen. He was also smart not to tell Lauren at all :)
This was such a fun idea, even though we were freezing as soon as we got out and cars kept pulling up while Lauren and I were trying to change outside the car, I am going back asap! Oh and we also got burgers on the way home, which were delicious and I put that picture up of Tyler eating one because I love it when a boy has a hardy appetite. And plus, he is good looking even when he eating.... :)

Hair!

I did it! I achieved my goal of being blonde for nine months, and now I am back to dark hair :) I really like it though it definitely took some getting used to. Shout out to Meredith Beesley who was my stylist on the project, and who is also an awesome visiting teachee! Also, for the most recent fabulous news of my life, please see Andrea and Adam Alba's blog, which is linked on the right...

Lost and Found

I have spent much of my life living in a constant state of clutter. Don't get me wrong, I knew where things were in which pile, on which flat surface, and I knew where the most likely places were that I had put that certain something. I just had to spend a certain amount of time looking. As a result, I am very used to losing/misplacing things and then finding them eventually because as everyone knows, clutter kind of rotates through in a kind of slow cyclical pattern.... Its great cause I never freak out when I can't find something. I either keep looking or wait for it to turn up. For example, I currently have no idea where my drivers license is. Am I worried? Not really.

As I have gotten older and have a lot less space to live in, it has become important to me to keep my living areas less cluttered because being clutter free makes a room feel more spacious. I now truly appreciate being able to see my floor, and the surfaces of my desk, dresser, and other flat surfaces normally covered in stacks of books and papers and piles of clothes. I have become more organized. I am a master at packing my room like a ship. For example, I have four large plastic tubs under my raised bed, and smaller plastic tubs stacked in the closet. And after losing important papers such as my passport and social security card several times, I am finally using a file folder for important documents. I have gotten to the point where I actually put things away.

But the kicker is that amazingly, I still manage to lose things on regular basis! For example, I "lost" a pair of pants I had recently purchased and spent twenty minutes looking everywhere in my apartment, never imagining that the pants would be hanging neatly in the closet exactly where they were supposed to be. Also, I had been missing my patriarchal blessing since I moved two months ago until this past weekend. Who would have thought that it would be where it was supposed to be, clearly visible in my file folder? I had looked everywhere!

It just amazes me that leading a more "organized" and less cluttered life has proved to be ironically inefficient. I still spend a lot of time looking for things. I guess I might adjust eventually to organized life, but in the meantime, I am officially surrendering to the fact that I am probably going to spend at least 1/30th of my life searching for things that may, or may not be actually missing.

I like the weekends

This week I took three tests, gave a presentation, and turned in an 8 page paper and completed two more rounds of the business simulation (my group is still kicking trash btw)! I am pretty proud of myself because I have been studying so much harder lately, and I did much better on these mid-terms than on the last ones! Yay me!

So....today is Saturday. And I have no definite plans, nothing pressing. And no school work that absolutely has to be done, and believe me, it has been a long time since that has happened, even on a Saturday. So I am going to the gym, going shopping, cleaning, and painting my toenails. And I will probably watch some T.V. and of course party tonight :) I am so excited!!

My new extra-curricular activity

Dear readers,

Its not officially official yet, but.... I am the new Purser for the BYU Sailing Club! I am not sure that I am officially in the BYU sailing club - I think my enrollment in the class automatically put me in it, but... Anyway! I think that it will be a good opportunity and a good thing to put on my resume! I am quite excited. Also there is going to be a formal event on Friday when I get inducted in :) I love dressing up!

This might be boring, but...

I feel like posting about my day for several reasons: 1) its been clipping along at an excellently productive pace. 2) Its a pretty typical day 3)BYU is pretty freaking amazing because you can do/experience so many different things in one day. Stop reading now if you aren't interested in the nitty grittys of my life.

7:25 Dragged myself out of bed. The only thing that got me out of bed this early was knowing that Tyler would be walking to campus in 20 mins and if I was going to campus soon anyway, I wanted to go with him. Using this incentive has been very effective lately in getting me to campus earlier :)
7:45 Out the door. Yes, I am amazing at getting ready fast. I can look half-way decent in that amount of time, so be jealous! hahaha
8:00 Spent 5 mins looking at the student art exhibit in the HFAC where Tyler's class was.
8:05 Studying for Managerial Economics
9:30 Got super tired so I took a nap on Tyler's shoulder
10:00 More studying for Man Ec, plus decisions for the product that I am managing in an industry simulation for my business strategy class.
11:40 Taco-bell. Cheap and warm and substantial and tasty. That's really all I care about.
12:00 Group meeting for the simulation.
12:30 Strategy class. My group ("company") is in second place in our industry! We rock
1:45 Met with the graduation counselor. I am officially leaving BYU in April, totally finished. But I have to take 16 credits next semester. Sigh.
2:00 8/10 on my Man Ec quiz. Dang my non-existent long-term memory.
3:20 Purchased snacks and a sandwich.
4:00 Went to the BYU welding department and convinced them to make me a cookie cutter type of a thing to the specifications of the sandwich I had purchased. This is all for my supply chain class. We are having a contest to improve the process of making PB&Js for the homeless. My group is going to win dang it. :) And I now love the welding department (which I wasn't even sure existed until today, even though I gambled and convinced my group to rework our process on something that I wasn't even sure I could get made... if BYU hadn't worked out I was completely prepared to go flirt with high school welding shop boys to get them to make it)- they are doing the job for free and its going to be done tomorrow.

The day is still young. I am now going to do Business Law reading for my test, go to Einstein Bagel with Tyler, come back to campus for another group meeting for the two different presentations we are giving this week, and then I am going to run home see if I can catch some FHE and then I after I am done deep cleaning the apartment for cleaning checks tomorrow I will crash until its time to wake up and do it again, but with a higher percentage of studying, and hopefully the gym thrown in there... I love my life!

Oh, and Tyler and I went to the formal homecoming dance over the weekend. We should be getting our pictures back tomorrow. I will post them as long as they turned out well... :)

My flight is booked

I just booked a flight to Kansas! I am going to visit Scootica with Lu and my mom on Oct. 15th! I am so excited!

In other random things I feel like sharing on my blog, I love my roommates. We ate pizza, and watched a movie last night, and it was a blast. I heart them! And pizza :)

And so it begins

It has started. Me, on the hunt for a job. An actual job, for after graduation in April. Wow. I have a lot of leads from BYU, which is great! I have a calendar just for the purpose of making application deadlines. I applied for Walmart not ten minutes ago! (And guys, please don't think that means I just applied to be a cashier at your friendly neighborhood grocer. I'm applying for positions at corporate in Bentonsville, Arkansas...) I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed and continue to tell myself that at least there is always a job for me as a lifeguard or something somewhere, I am sure of it. I actually often fantasize about moving home after I graduate and being a lifeguard and the Bloomington Country Club. How relaxing would that be? And after all the school I have done lately, it sounds amazing! But not as amazing as working for the best purchasing department of all time! Sounds weird, I know, but that would be super exciting.

I LOVE ART!

So BYU had this art exhibit forever ago called "Beholding Christ". I fell in love with two paintings from that collection that really stuck with me (although I really liked many of the others), and I have been hoping to run into these works somehow again. Tonight was the night when I successfully found these pieces online, and also learned that one is again being displayed in the museum, and I am so excited to run over there to look at it again!

But here is the thing - I am so in love with these paintings that I don't even want to put them up on my blog. That would be practically insulting to these works. But I will anyway, because I have a point to prove. Popular religious artists Greg Olsen and Del Parson are fine for mass production, and they serve their purpose, but they are so not meant to be huge and framed on a wall as the epitome of what good art is. If you have a huge painting done by either of these artists hanging on your wall at home in a lovely frame, props to you. I fully support beautifying and uplifting rooms with inspiring art, even if it is fantastical, and those paintings are reasonably priced, so its fine as long as you realize how much way better art is out there! There are so many artists that are not nearly as famous as those two previously mentioned who are so much better. I just hate it when people think that they are the greatest of all that is artistic. Bleah.

Compare those commonly known pieces and tell me that the paintings by J. Kirk Richards that I have included below don't just hit you, and make you think deeply, and make you feel like they are saying something about who Christ really was, and what he thought about. Its real. This is good art. http://art.jkirkrichards.com/archive.php

Even though high school was a long time ago...

I can't help myself.... I joined this group on Facebook. Pathetic? Maybe. But hey, I still bleed blue.

DEW Tour 2009

Since my last post was about football, and this one is about BMX, you might be thinking that I am a total tomboy. Which would be false. And to reassure your doubting minds I will next post a picture of the latest love of my life... After I say how much fun the Dew Tour was!! I loved it because it was something I had never done before, because I think these guys are amazing athletes, and I kind of love the laid back culture of extreme sports. You swear that they aren't going to be able to pull out of their mid-air contortions in time to land without killing themselves, but they do every time. Its ridiculous.
I didn't see Ryan Scheckler (famous and awesome skateboarder who I love), but I did have some adventures none-the-less. I did a little under the table wheeling and dealing for our tickets and saved some money, and I also did a bit of sneaking around and playing the innocent and dumb but friendly blonde to use an ATM that was in a closed off area of the Energy Solutions Arena, so that I could get the cash to make my aforementioned sketchy deal :)
Another awesome part of the day was the fact that I got to see my cousin Chloe! She was visiting from Houston, TX and I hadn't seen her in years so it was fun to spend time with her.
We also went to the Farmers Market where I got an amazing loaf of bread. I LOVE good bread. I need to start learning how to make the good stuff.
Back to the subject of purchases... yeah, I now own these and I'm in love with them!

BYU vs. OKLA

OH MY GOSH. BYU, ranked No. 20, beat Oklahoma, who were ranked No. 3! It was the first time BYU had won their first-away-game-of-the-season since 1996 and the first time that BYU had beat a nonconference top 10 team since 1990! It was an awesome game, 14 - 13, and even though it was an away game, all of Provo was making noise to cheer them on. I watched the game at Legends Grill in the student athlete building, and there were well over a hundred people there, it was so much fun :) We kept up all the traditions of doing our particular cheers at the correct times. The only thing that was missing was that ridiculous, yet actually quite endearing sound of a cougar (the animal kind) hiss-growling. We sang the fight song twice, and everyone was hugging each other at the end. When we left Legends, even the police were celebrating by turning on their lights and sirens just for fun :) Then they had to leave to direct the thousands of students in the streets yelling and honking their car horns and crossing the cross walk back and forth in droves for no reason other than to share the celebration with people lining the corners. There were still people in the street when my friends and I got back from the bonfire we did after the game. And now, even though it is 12:45 a.m., next on our docket of fabulous activities for the evening revolves around a confirmed rumor that the team is landing in the Provo airport at 1:45 a.m. Audrey, Dani and I are just biding our time until then so we can go meet the team (I feel so cool even just saying "the team" as if I know them) with all the other (hopefully) hundreds of fans through whom this information circulated. I AM SO EXCITED! ......
.......Meeting the players at the airport was awesome, there were hundreds of people there, with a DJ and everything. It was a total party. We got to high five the players as they walked past and Coach Mendenhall gave a small speech over the sound system...:) We are such good fans :)
Also, please take a moment now to study the beauty of the picture posted above. Wow.

Lake Powell!

Lake Powell is my happy place, and this was either the second or third time that I have been this summer! Joy! My parents, Lynne, Keith, Tyler, Jamie, Kael and myself took a trip there for the day this past weekend, and it was such a blast!

Of course we got going way later than we had planned on - I woke up forty-five minutes late, when everyone was at the door ready to go, my dad forgot his swimsuit so we had to stop at Walmart to buy him one, and then my mom gave us all quite a scare by losing her purse for twenty minutes or so.... thank goodness there are honest people in the world who turned it in! Eventually we got on the water, and really, the delay was to be expected because i don't think this family is ever going to be able to change their late/never-a-dull-moment ways :)

We went cliff jumping and climbing, we got thrown around on the tube so much that we continued on even after we made a hole in it, and several people whipped out their awesome wakeboarding skills :)

I for one am still so sore that this morning I could barely move. I am pretty sure that we all beat ourselves up almost as much as a person possibly could in one day in the name of fun and adventure.

I know I keep mentioning alternate career paths, I suppose it is a result of my nervousness for my future adult type job hunting, but if I don't find full-time employment in business after I graduate next year, I think I will look into becoming a park ranger/water police man, i mean woman. I know that I would at least have a totally sweet tan!

MIA

Yeah, so I haven't posted on this thing in a while, so I just thought I would refer you to Adam and Andrea's blog, because we have all been going to St. George a lot for the weekends. Many fun times have been had, but since I am lazy, you can refer to their cute and frequently updated blog. I am pretty sure that I haven't been to my ward in about a month, but I love going home! Its so relaxing to pretend like all of my responsibilities in Provo don't exist. Which is so like me because I am totally one of those escape reality as frequently as possible people whether it is by leaving town, reading young-adult fiction, or watching So You Think You Can Dance clips on YouTube.

Weekend Fun!

I had such an excellent weekend! And it even kind of started on Thursday night. I love not having class on Friday! First I went to Cheesecake Factory, and Transformers 2 at an IMAX Theater, and on Friday I went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open-house, Saturday I went to Lagoon to visit Lauren at work and party-hardy, and Sunday I went over to Ash and Devon's house for dinner! My life is charmed :)

Its official - I'm a clencher

So about a month ago, I thought that I somehow mysteriously dislocated my jaw. I couldn't open my mouth very wide without lots of pain and like a cramping on the left side of my jaw. I decided to not freak out and decided that if I had to get my jaw wired shut to fix it, I would at least lose a lot of weight :) Anyway, a week later, the other side started hurting, and after continual problems for the past month, I woke up this morning and realized that my jaw was clenched so tight I could it took concentrated effort to open my mouth. So now I am in the market for a mouth guard. Lets just pretend that I am an athlete in my sleep or something, and not think about how ridiculous I am going to look and how nasty that is going to be... I don't have the guts to post a picture, because I would still like to be in denial....

Burn Notice

So I am currently obsessed with the TV show Burn Notice. I love it! Basically, while watching it I get to learn about super cool things like how to get rid of the drug lord living next door, or the black market gun runner who is threatening my life. Very interesting, and all done by a James Bond type who has an amazing smile, and is the Robin Hood of Miami. It is a fun show, and I really really wish I were the girl side-kick because she is good with guns and blowing things up. Another benefit of the show is that it is also quite clean (TV-PG). All of this leads to two conclusions:
1. I must find someone who owns the seasons! I need to borrow them!
2. From the bottom of my heart I mean it when I say that if I am not married by the time I am 30, I am going into special forces :)

A tribute to the other gender

So, as many of you know, I didn't grow up with brothers. Maybe that is why I find guys so fascinating and incredibly amusing. They do the strangest things! For example, at FHE tonight, I turned to talk to some of the girls as the activity was winding down, and the next thing I know, there are two guys wrestling to the death on the floor (all in fun of course). I have no idea how that just happened all of the sudden! Weird. :)
I love them all though, and have probably had more guy-friends than girl-friends. In honor of their strangeness, I will post some pictures that I came across today while reading the news.these guys are all chasing a cheese down an incredibly steep hill as it rolls. there were thirty broken bones in last years competition.

This guy has won the world hot dog eating championships six times in a row. And he has no fat on his body. Figures. And he looks so happy :)

Flashback

Today I had the most random flashback to when I was in Paris. It wasn't even a memory of the city, only the hotel, and our very weird bathroom that was was like its own little room made of one continous piece of plastic.
But that memory led to a thousand others that flooded my mind after I started thinking about my study-abroad trip. I love those memories!! I hope and wish and pray a thousand times over that for the rest of my life I get to have those random memories come back to me, even if they are about the strangeness of European plumbing. I think memories are a gift, and I wouldn't change any of mine for the world.

Bliss

I went boating!!! Twice! I love St. George! I love my sisters! (Jess, I miss you!) And I am very sunburned :) hahahaha

Good things about summer school

So I want to start off with a picture of the sandwich that i made this morning. We ran out of baggies yesterday because only heaven knows how I lost the two boxes of baggies that I bought at the store last time... So this morning when I was of course in a rush, I grabbed for the saranwrap instead, and this is what I cam up with. You can barely see the sandwich in there! The edges of the sandwich kept peeking out so I had to just keep wrapping and wrapping, it was all together ridiculous. It was funny :)
So there are several things that I like about going to school during the spring/summer terms.
1. I did my homework by the pool yesterday! I went to class, went to the pool, went to class, and went to the pool again! I think I am going to get very tan this summer :)
2. I can drive to school! There is graduate student parking right outside the Tanner builidng that is available for undergrads during the summer. I feel so cool when I pull up to school and it takes thirty seconds to get to my seat in the classroom from there. What a time saver!
3. I never have to go anywhere on campus besides the Tanner building, and because it is the nicest building on campus anyway, I am a happy camper.
4. Study rooms/everything is always available. Fewer people = fewer lines/more space :)
5. I have a dinner group! Monday-Thursday, I do not have to worry about cooking dinner, except for the one night every three weeks that it is my turn to cook. So because of this, I don't have to shop/spend money on food nearly as often!
6. Um, have I mentioned my SAILING class??
7. For the first time in YEARS, I go to sleep before midnight on a regular basis. Boring, yes, but, extremely helpful for staying awake in my 8:00 am class. My roommates' examples are largely the reason that I do this. I think that Erin goes to sleep at like 10:00 a lot of nights! Crazy!
8. My new roomies! They are all awesome, and I got so super lucky when I picked them!

Marriage is what brings us together today...

It finally happened! Ashley is married! I am so happy for her, especially because she is so happy!

Who knew BYU offered such awesome classes?

I SAIL! I'M A SAILOR! I SAILED!
I am currently enrolled in "Sailing" as a class, which I think is one of the coolest things I have ever done at BYU! Last week, Skipper Steve let me and Paul and Ann into his class, we passed our swimming test, and today we were off, away from the dock, cruising across the water, heading into the sunset - it was a marvelous experience. And it cost me pretty much nothing! The weather was perfect, and sailing is not quite as difficult as I thought it would be, but that was probably because of the gentle winds.
It is so amazing to me that BYU offers this as a class!

Sick Days

Dear readers,

I have been sick for the past few days and moving before that and homeless before that and had finals before that, so it has been awhile since I have even been on the internet.  I have the cold flu and have found the most marvelous invention (besides Afrin, Sudafed, and Nyquil)!  Puffs plus lotion tissues with the scent of Vicks Vapor Rub built right in to each tissue!  It opens you right up!  So if anyone else gets sick heaven forbid, happy blowing!

Things I Have Done This Week

I want to post a blog about what I do with my life. I often write about random thoughts that I have. But here is a glimpse into the party I call life that is intermittently broken up by some schooling.

1. Out of all the things I have done this week, I am most proud of the fact that I have run eight miles (not all at once of course, I am a horrible runner, but am building up to it)! I have this new heart rate monitor, which is great and really helps! The first day I ran in the rain which was awesome, and the second day I ran in the snow :) But don't worry, the weather is much better now, and i am loving it all. I have been praying really hard that my bad knees will hold up, and they have been doing pretty well so cross your fingers!
2. I have taken three finals, and have two to go! Yes, the last two are probably going to be the hardest by like ten times, but I am choosing to just not think about that. There is so much to study I feel like I don't know where to begin...which is why I really haven't....
3. I threw a bridal shower for Ashley on Wednesday :) It was fun, and I think it went well. We had a good turn out, and I think everyone enjoyed the food - I made spinach dip and salsa, and Ann made two kinds of bread, and we had fruit and the kind of punch that has sherbet floating in it. It was good, and is all gone... I think that says something right? I am so glad that I have watched my mom entertain so many times, and I think I understand more now about the pressure of wanting everyone to have a really good time... I was actually kind of nervous beforehand!
4. I went to Seventeen Again at midnight with the roomies, which I must say was totally worth the 8.50 that it cost. I am normally totally against paying full price for a movie, but two hours of Zac Efron eye candy=totally worth my time and money. It was so fun :)
5. I went rafting on a lake in the dark! That was way fun. After helping Trent T. get engaged, Smalls and I stole away in the raft that Trent had used and rowed around the lake and then we of course led the others to believe that the raft had floated away on its own.... good times. Me and Brody and Smalls also got to eat the extra strawberries and chocolate involved in Trent's proposal, which was amazingly delicious. Yea for people getting engaged!
6. I also went to a sleepover at Hannah's apartment where we danced, and had a CRS (Coldplay Rejuvenation Session, which involves listening to coldplay in the dark laying on the floor with your feet sticking up above you resting on the wall). And of course, the best part of the evening is that Dani graced us with an amazing appearance in a red spandex jumpsuit (who randomly has one at college might I ask??).

So there you have it. I live a charmed life :) Viva la vida! And hopefully the party won't end, because I am going to be in "p-town" for the next year. I am excited to see what it is like and all there is to do over the summer here, since this is my first time staying. I think it will be great though!
Ttfn peeps ;)

Here's to you! And us :)

Audrey Spainhower, or Auds or Audrey Spenglehowserstein as I like to call her, turned 21 today! And in honor of that, and the fact that we are leaving each other for the first time in awhile, I would just like to say that I couldn't ask for a better friend, and I love her, and I am going to miss her. We have been best-ies since 9th grade, and have lived together for the past two years. They have been such good years! And now she is off on grand adventures without me this time, first to Washington D.C. to do an internship for the Smithsonian National Archives Museum, and then she is going on a mission. I am so excited for her!
There are so many reasons that I will miss Audrey. For one thing, she is my external hard drive on which is stored many of the facts of my life. I don't know how I am going to tell people about myself without her to check facts with! For example, one time when I was telling some person I had just met at a ward social that I took AP something or other in high school, and they asked what I got on the test, I shouted across the room, "Hey Audrey! What was my score on ______ test?" And she knew! And I didn't! And that is when I figured out that Audrey's mind that is like a trap was a perfect complement to my fuzzy and abstract thinking, and my absentminded-professor ways.
I will also dearly miss staying up late talking to her. We did that more last year when we shared a room. We honestly spent approximately an hour every night talking till we fell asleep. It was so fun because when I say we talked, we mostly laughed, especially when we were discussing how hot Zac Efron is, and how I was going to marry Channing Tatum, and she was going to marry a Harvard-going politician's son, and of course we laughed hardest when quoting HPPP ("Well that's just fantastic!"). This year we have stayed up late in the living room on the couches with the Christmas lights on, hot chocolate (she likes hers with toast), feeling homey. And we have also greatly enjoyed her Netflix account. Bu I am forever amazed about her patience in listening to me and my ridiculous woes. She has been a saint.
I think I am going to be a little bit lost without her. She has been my lunch buddy, gym buddy, and probably pretty much everything else buddy. I am so lucky to have had these years with her in which to study with in the library in high school together while sneaking to eat our sandwiches at the same time, to almost get in fights with Pineview people, to make cake for each other, to go on trips together, to freakout over something or another, and to waste time together and laugh at getting away with it.
Happy Birthday Auds!