One More Week Down

Another week has come and gone and again, nothing too significant occurred. But, I will continue to update whoever reads this blog with the uneventful happenings of my life.

Monday: Guess what? Yup, class and work and class and work.  For FHE we played Mafia.  I love my FHE family.  They make me happy :)

Tuesday: Just a blur of class and work.

Wednesday: Again, another blur of class and work.

Thursday: See above.

Friday: I started out the morning by going to the Temple with Emily and then I worked until noon.  I came home and went grocery shopping and worked on some homework.  I got a text from my friend Ben that he had two extra tickets to the football game and asked if two of the girls in our apartment wanted them.  Margaret, Brittany and Ashley were gone and McKensey had a date that night.  So I took one and Ben and I pressured Emily into taking the second one.  The one thing he didn't tell us until we got there was that they were 3rd row tickets.  Heck. Yes. To make it even better, WE WON!! WOOHOO!!!!

Emily was lame and left at half time. But Ben and I had a blast being obnoxious. And the second half was when the game got really good :)

Saturday: Our ward had a boating activity on Deer Creek Reservoir up in Provo Canyon.   It was such a gorgeous day and the water wasn't even that cold. I went tubing for the first time and had a BLAST! I even got some sunshine so I'm not as white any more.  After tubing we trekked home and showered off the lake water before trying to get some homework done.  I fell asleep but woke up just in time to do an hour or so of homework before the General Relief Society Broadcast.  The talks were amazing (as always).  I absolutely loved President Uchtdorf's talk on the Forget-Me-Not flowers.  It is one of those talks that I will always remember.  After the broadcast we continued our apartment homework party followed by McKensey, Ashley and I having a sleep over in the bathroom.  Yes, we pulled our mattresses into the bathroom because we could.

Food!

Boating Buddies! 

Ben, Emily, Me, McKensey, Uncle Kyle, Momma Lucy and Sister Emily

Bathroom sleep-over! Yes we are weird, but we are in college, so it's ok. :)

Sunday: What a lovely day at church :) I also am trying something new: I am singing in the ward choir. Apparently I can sing decently if I sing the alto part.  I actually enjoyed myself today at practice and am sort of excited to preform in church in a few weeks. We found out our home teachers are our Father and Brother Kyle from FHE (yes, they are both named Kyle: one is our dad and the other is our brother.  Actually, my brother Kyle was MTC companions with Ian Blotter, a guy from my Marquette Ward. It's a small world after all! Especially if you're Mormon!) and we got home taught tonight.  Ward prayer was fun and I actually socialized and talked to people I didn't know! What a concept!

Spiritually Full

What a crazy week! It started out slightly rough (mostly because I didn't get enough sleep the previous weekend) but ended on such a high note!

Monday: Class, work, class, work, home, dinner, FHE, homework, sleep.

Tuesday: Work, class, devotional (Elder Andersen spoke on honesty.  SO GOOD!), class, work, dinner at the CougarEat followed by writing a first draft of a history paper.  My lovely roommate, McKensey, picked me up so I didn't have to walk home in the dark.  Isn't she just great?

Wednesday: I went to campus early so I could take one more test I needed to apply for my program.  I thought I would be able to do it before my class started at 9:00.  But of course I couldn't.  Due to technical difficulities, I had to restart my test at 9:05...I was about 20 minutes late to my first class.  Then I went to art where I discovered my lesson plan for next week's class got totally ripped apart :( grrrrr.  Gym was actually ok.  I rocked jump roping again.  I finished up my major application and turned that in (a HUGE sigh of relief!).  Then I went to work and waited for Emily to get done with class before we walked home to eat dinner and guess what? Do homework. Oh, I also found out that my best friend's brother got engaged.  He has been home from his mission for 6 months...weird.  But a happy, good weird.

Happy to have my application turned in!

Thursday: More work.  More class.  In biology, President Samuelson (the president of BYU) guest lectured! He had lots of really cool insights and even had a Q&A session with us where he answered pretty much any question we could throw at him.  It was one of the coolest classes I have ever had. I had a staff meeting and ate delicious bagels followed by more classes and work.  That night, Emily and I relived our freshmen days of long ago (ok, they weren't that long ago) by eating dinner at the Creamery before going to World of Dance.  It was AMAZING! Lots of different dance companies from BYU preformed and it was so cool! A great way to spend a Thursday night.

Friday: I went to the Temple not once, but TWICE! I went once in the morning with Miss Emily and again in the afternoon after work with Alex and Sydney.  It was so great to go! I needed some definite me time and I got the answers to lots of questions.  It was such a lovely afternoon.  After dinner and grocery shopping, I went over to Alex and Sydney's for a girls night complete with Disney movies and ice cream.

Aren't these girls beautiful?

Oh, the things we find while grocery shopping.

Saturday: I woke up did some laundry, de-mold-ify-ed our bathroom and did some much needed homework.  I got super excited for the Utah vs. BYU game.  But we are not going to talk about the result of that game...

Super pumped for the game, only to be disappointed :(

Sunday: STAKE CONFERENCE! Woo hoo! And guess what? No talks about marriage! Weird, I know.  But it was such a good conference.  I learned so much and got answers to my list of questions that was a mile long.  I had a lovely chat with my broha and another chat with my roomies :) I love them lots and lots.

a week in which there is not much to remember or write about

This week was a blur.  I really don't remember much of what happened.

Monday: I did homework.  Fun way to spend Labor Day right? Oh, I also saw my best friend from Michigan! She was driving through Utah on her way up to BYU-Idaho and stopped to have lunch with me in Provo :D

Tuesday: Devo was the bomb dot com.

Wednesday: I rode a ferris wheel :)

Thursday: Homework and my final Skype date with David before he heads for the MTC.  We talked about anything and everything and it was so great.  I going to miss that kid a TON!

Friday: I had an awesome art session with McKensey and a Princess Bride party with Emily, McKensey, Alex and my new friend Ben.

My finished self portrait.  I was quite impressed.  It turned out a lot better than I thought it was going to. 

Saturday: Grocery shopping, homework, nap, BYU football game, ice cream, talking, and being girly.
Oh, yeah.  And my roommate got engaged...

Sunday: AWESOME lessons at church and an amazing fireside by Elder and Sister Oaks.  Then we had some guys from the ward come play games and hang out and talk until curfew.

I Survived!

The first week of classes has ended and I survived. I am down to 17 credit hours and 19-20 hours of work a week plus at least 2 hours of homework every night (usually more like 3 or 4) but I made it.  I figure if I can do it a week at a time, I can do it. :)

Monday: First day of school! I had Joseph Smith and the Restoration taught by Susan Easton Black.  She. Is. Fantastic. She uses no notes and just speaks for an hour about Joseph Smith's life and the early history of the Church.  I love it.  It is going to be one of my harder classes but I think I will learn the most from it.  I also worked for 3 hours followed by my El. Ed. gym class.  It is lots of fun :D and it is a block class which means it ends in October so I will have 4 extra hours a week to do homework :D :D :D

First day of school with some of my roommates:

Brittany, me, Emily and McKensey

One of my other roommates: Ashley

We made cookies for our lovely girls who had homework on the first day of school :(

Tuesday: Second first day of school! I started out my day by working at 8:00 am followed by biology.  I think it will be an interesting class.  We don't have a text book per-se so most of the standard biology information we need to learn comes from lecture.  That is going to be an interesting way to learn. I had lunch outside with my roommate Emily and met up with Bridger to take some "first day of school" pictures.  After lunch I had my New Testament class.  This class is also going to have me learning lots! I don't really know as much as I should about the standard Gospels so I am very excited to learn more about Christ's life. After NT I have one of my favorite classes: Children's Literature.  Most of our homework assignments are to read children's books.  Anything and everything from picture books to 4th/5th grade chapter books.  I am so excited for this class.  We also have basically all of November off from that class because we have students who are doing practicums for the program.  After that I have History.  Now, I love history, but not this kind.  I have never really liked ancient history.  And of course this class covers the beginning of time up through 1500.  But my interest has already been sparked.  I think it is because my professor is LDS too so he has a good way of incorporating our beliefs into how the world thinks things happened.  He always says that even if you may not believe this is how history went down, it is still important to at least be informed how other people thing; this was something I had never been introduced to before, it was always this is how things are so memorize and regurgitate. After my final class of the day, I headed back over to work for another 2 hours before walking home to eat dinner and do homework for many hours.

 Second first day of school with the broha.

Wednesday: Wednesday was like Monday except for the three hours that I work in the middle of the day, I have art class.  I haven't taken art since 5th grade.  But my teacher has hope for all of us so I think I may enjoy it.  One of my roommates is also in that class with me so we are going to have fun attempting to make art this semester.  In gym, we jumped rope and hula hooped.  Hula hooping is still not a talent of mine but I just have to say, my jump roping skills from back in the day haven't left me.  I was probably the second best one in our class (the first was on a jump rope team in middle school..pshhh) After gym more work until 6:00 and studying on campus until my roommate got out of her late class.

Thursday: Repeat Tuesday and add in a Skype date with David and that sums up my day.

Friday: Friday's are awesome because I have no class.  I work from 8:00 am until noon and then I am free to do whatever I please...well, after I finish my homework...
Emily and I went to Wally World to get groceries and some necessary items for our apartment.  Then we attempted to do homework that afternoon...I made dinner and Emily and our roommate McKensey and I had a sleep over in our family room.

 Can I just say I love these two girls so much?

Saturday: My family came! I got to go to lunch with them and we bonded over a BYU football victory followed by going to a Real Salt Lake soccer game with two brothers, a cousin, a father and a grandpa.  It was a blast! Throw in some shopping and teasing and laughing and you get the perfect Saturday with my family.

 Real Salt Lake Soccer Team :D

 My cousin Madison with Bridger and I at the soccer game.

 Cosmo even made an appearance!

Sunday: Today I went to church with my aunt and her family.  Since she is in Primary, I went there with her (there was no way I was going to go to Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society by myself) so I got to sit with the Sunbeams (so cute!!) and the 11 year old girls.  We had Sharing Times on missionaries and people who could speak another language were asked to teach us how to say "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" in the language they know.  I know know (sort of) how to say it in Korean and Portuguese.  I also volunteered to teach the children how to say it in Spanish.  And let me just say, when I was teaching them, I spoke with the best accent I have ever had.  Usually I am a total and complete gringo when it comes to speaking Spanish but it was super cool to have the sounds coming out of my mouth be almost hispanic ;) I spent the rest of the afternoon with my family cooking dinner and baking and eating (our favorite past times). Then Bridger and I packed up and headed back to P-Town.  I unpacked all of the stuff my wonderful mommy bought me and my roommates and I cleaned the kitchen and watched one of the best movies "The Ultimate Gift" while eating yummy rolls our neighbor made and delicious treats that my family made.

I love my life :) I love my roommates :) I love school :) I love my family :) I love missionaries :) I love the Gospel :) I love learning :)