Whew!

With grades officially in the semester is over! And I survived :) That seems to be a reoccurring event. ONE more semester and then I graduate!!!!

My application to BYU graduate studies is officially in and I'm sending out my application to work at Oakcrest tomorrow. If all goes well, I will be moving out to Utah the first week of May right after graduation. However, we all know how things turn out when we plan :) I just have to wait and see if I get accepted to either! If not, I'll be living back home and going to a school near there. But, I can't say enough how much I want to be at Oakcrest and BYU. I hope it happens. We'll see. Wish me luck!

Now that I'm on break I'm going to enjoy it! I've got some online schoolwork to do, but nothing can stand in my way! Last weekend I had an amazing visit with Eliza and this weekend I'm off to PA! Hershey, here I come! I'm pretty excited! Life is good.

P.S. This is my 50th post! Hurray!

Memories

The other day I got to thinking.... What ever happened to these guys??

Bananas in Pajamas were my FAVORITE back in the day.

One of These Things...

Is not like the others.
When we were decorating for Christmas my mom arranged the nativity in a lovely arrangement. A few minutes later my dad made an addition :)

Fame

Over Halloween I happened to meet the very famous Hannah Montana and her good friend Lola. It. Was. Awesome.

Cookie Paluza Extravaganza!

A few weeks ago my roommate noticed I had 101 cookie cutters in a box that had never been opened. We needed a solution to this problem so what better solution than have a Cookie Paluza Extravaganza to use them ALL!?

I know what you're thinking. What party doesn't end with someone on top of the fridge? The cookies told a very specific story. That night I laughed so hard I had a stomach ache. Or maybe that was the 101 cookies :)

Next up on the adventure list. ELIZA. Then Hershey PA! Life is good.

Experimentation

I'm trying out some new color schemes. I'm going to experiment before I make any long term decisions, so things may be changing around here quite often. We'll see how it goes. This could take a while.

I'm BACK!!!!!

As you can see from my last post, I've been in a weird funk the past month or so.
But after certain events this weekend I feel like a huge load has been lifted off my shoulders. I walked into my roommates room and stated "Life is wonderful!" She responded with a smile and said, "You're back." I am! I'm back and better than ever! I love life again!
Is my life perfect? Nope. But who cares?!?! Its marvelous none the less.

A word to the wise: If there's something you feel like you should do, don't avoid it or put off. DO IT! You'll be glad you did :)

One of Those Days

Do you ever have those days where you just want to crawl in a hole and go to sleep for at least 72 hours. That's today. And yesterday. And pretty much everyday the past week. Its just one of those times when there is so much stress and so much pressure you just want to quit life. Just for a little while anyways.

I know my life is good. I am extremely blessed and I should have nothing to complain about. Here it comes.... the BUT. But, I just feel like there is so much pressure on me! Most, if not all of which I put on myself. And even though I know I'm not, I just feel alone.

I've decided, I want 6 full months. I want 6 months to have no responsibilities besides church, to sit in bed for as long as I want and read a millions books on my To-Read list, to get on a plane and fly where ever I want, to sit outside to smell the air and be calm, to write in my journal, to read my scriptures, to make my clothes fit again, to have time to plan and prepare wonderful meals, and to RUN and RUN and RUN. That's what I want. 6 months.

I just needed to get that off my chest. Sorry for the downer post. I hope I didn't depress you too much. By the way, I have to say thanks to my wonderful dad who is coming to give me a running car today. He is a life saver! He always has my back. Thanks dad!

Next week is Thanksgiving! Hopefully I'll have a much happier post after that glorious school(but not homework) free weekend.

Winding Down

3 1/2 weeks left in the semester!!!!!! 10 official days of class. 1 annotated bibliography, 1 12 page paper, 2 quizzes, 9ish chapters to read, 2 1 page papers, tons of music theory stuff, and 8 exams to go. And I have no motivation to do any of it!!!!! Instead of doing my homework, I'm blogging. The joys of the Internet.

I can do it.... just click log out and go to the library website...... anyone up for a movie instead? :)

Any motivational thoughts would be much appreciated right now :)

Gangsta'

I never knew I was related to a gangsta'. Ella came upstairs a few weeks ago sporting a backwards hat and giant slippers. She excitedly stated in a deep voice, "Yo dudes. Sup man."
A toothless gangster. Who would have pictured it?

I love this little girl!

In Case You Were Wondering...

I'm AWESOME at bowling!!!!!

There's No Place Like Home

Every time I see this sign it warms my heart. The reason: Home Avenue takes me to MY home! What a coincidence!

There really is no place like home.

Sorry Boys

My heart was stolen 4 years ago by some fierce competition, and I haven't gotten it back yet.

Check out THESE heartthrobs:

Cute AND Wise? That's what I call a whole package!

A Ninja to protect me and draw me pictures? Doesn't get much better than that!

A STUD that will take me to the beach? Sign me up!

And a man who loves outdoor adventures? That's my kind of guy!

To any boys who are currently or may in the future be interested in me:

As you can plainly see, you've got your work cut out for you trying to top THAT! I don't envy you.

High/Low

So, I think I'm just going to do random 5 minute posts for a while until my schedule calms down. But I just wanted to say, its amazingly wonderful how much professors are willing to help me cut corners to graduate in May. Its fantastic! And I'm so grateful.

And figuring out my schedule for next semester, I'm actually going to have time to breathe starting in January! Yay for 18 credit hours!!!! And the past couple of days have been excellent and perfect in pretty much every way for no particular reason.

But as a side note, tonight in the car on the way home from institute I told the girls some funny stories about my family, and I'm sure they were looking at me like I was crazy as I'm trying to drive and can't breathe because I'm laughing so hard. Of course I'm the only one laughing. And as a result, I miss my family! I miss my mommy! And I'm perfectly okay with admitting that fact. I can't wait til Christmas when we're all together again. Christmas?!?! Its too far away! Hooray for next weekend when I get to go home and see my parents, 2 sibs, 2 nephews, and 1 niece full of attitude!

Recommendations

Its been a while since I've had time to post, but I wanted to take a minute and make a good book/story recommendation. A book I'm reading for my Cognitive Neuroscience class is called An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks. That entire sentence is not as boring as it sounds. Its a book with various case studies of people with neurological disorders. The story A Surgeon's Life on pages 77-107 is very worth reading. Its about a surgeon with Tourettes. If you want to understand the life of people with Tourettes better, I think this is a good place to start :)

Hopefully I'll find the time to update you on my marvelous life soon. Until then.

How I Survive College

As I've mentioned before this is a crazy semester! I have been pretty stressed lately with everything to get done and all the information to soak up. So I decided to survive this semester(my second to last as an undergrad!) I am going to have ridiculous amounts of fun on the weekends (except for the ones when I'm behind on homework, like this weekend). Here's an update on the FUN!!!!!!!

Andrea (my previous roommate and one of my best friends) came for a visit my first ultra fun weekend. Lauren is on the left. She is my current roommate and also happens to be one of Andrea's former roommates.

We laughed, and sang, and laughed, and played games, and laughed, and stayed up late, and laughed and laughed and laughed. It was wonderful.

Over Labor Day weekend I spent Saturday through Monday with Eliza (also one of my best friends)!!!! We spent the weekend doing things I had never had the privilege in my sheltered life to do. Such as.....

Eating at Chipotle....

Playing mini-golf......

Watching Sleeping Beauty, playing tons of new board/card games and having tons and tons of fun(I have done that before). It was delightful.

Then, last weekend Andrea came for another fantastic visit and we went CAMPING! I happen to really like camping. And we celebrated 2 of our friends' birthdays.

All in all, this is shaping up to be a fun, busy, but fun, semester. The only downside is that the two people(outside of family) at the core of my social life live 2 hours away, in opposite directions. Luckily I love traveling :)

Dear Meany Face

Today at school someone keyed my car. If I could write a letter to the person who did this, it would go something like this:

Dear Meany Face,
Today you keyed my car. I was already having a bad day, and upon my release from class, I was looking forward to going home and eating a lunch and cheering myself up. Instead I came out to my car and CRIED. Someone should probably inform you that art work is for paper and canvases, not other people's property. I understand we all have frustration sometimes. I would suggest taking a bubble bath or talking it out with a good friend instead of ruining another person's day. So from now on, please leave my poor little car alone. It did nothing to you besides park next to you. And in case you were wondering, I reported you to the police. They may never find you, but whether they do or not I hope you learn a valuable lesson from all this. I know I did: Ride your bike to school from now on.

Thanks for the lesson.
-The girl whose car you keyed, and day you attempted to ruin

P.S. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my day anyways. That'll show you.
P.P.S. Sorry for calling you meany face.

Bliss

What I'm grateful for today:

Bless the heart of Stewart Adams (inventor of ibuprofen). Its saved me from much pain!

Riddle Me This

What Can make you miss home more than Mom's Chicken Noodle Soup? The answer....... NOTHING.

Meet My Dance Partner

Every Saturday I get to plug in the earphones, turn up the volume and boogie with this guy:I have this habit of dancing shamelessly whenever there is music playing and my lawn mower has gotten to come along for the ride several times now. A good time spender? Yes. Dangerous? Probably. Fun? Absolutely. The neighbors may or may not think I'm crazy.

Life is Good

This has been a rough week adjusting to school life again and getting myself in a normal routine. I've been in this funk where the little things that usually excite me, haven't. However that all changed with one wonderful visit from one wonderful girl. Andrea, my old roommate and one of my best friends, came to visit this weekend and it gave me the laughter I needed to get back to my usual self. And its good to be back!

So here are my Sunday lists. People I'm grateful for:
1. ANDREA!!! She just made everything okay again!
2. ELIZA!!! For listening to hours of my rambling on the phone when I really needed an ear.
(Do I have some great friends or what?)
3. My advisor. He didn't really do anything, but just letting me explain my plan for the next year really helped.
4. A girl in my class who said people with Tourette's are cool.

And things that I'm grateful for/made me happy this week:
1. My new book shelf! (I've decided to become a reader... as soon as I have time)
2. My new picture frame (thanks Phil)
3. Mowing the grass.
4. My freshly weeded back yard.
5. My completely over organized schedule/bulletin board that puts things in front of me so it doesn't have to swim around in my head.

I've never wanted to slack off from school as much as I do now. And I've never needed to work as hard or do as much as I do this semester with taking way too many hours, taking the GRE, and applying to grad school. One person suggested to me that I'm getting senioritis. I think she might be right :) Wish me luck!

Hooray for driving!

As of today, I am an official licensed driver again. Thank goodness! Living on your own, in a more rural area, and not being able to drive is not the most convenient thing.

In the spirit of this joyous occasion of getting my license back, I thought I'd share a secret of mine. I've always wondered what it would be like to make these:

I would love to spend a day making rumble strips. It just looks like it would be fun to take fresh, perfectly smooth pavement and make special dents in it. I imagine a giant steamroller with raised lines across it going over and making perfect lines in the asphalt. However, I'm sure the actual art of rumble strip making is not nearly as glamorous as I imagine.

Is It Just Me?

On the days when I have a ton to do, I usually wake up and get going. In the midst of all the busyness (yes busyness is a word, I looked it up), I often don't realize I'm hungry and forget to eat. Then, at the end of the day, when I finally get that minute to sit down and rest I realize my stomach is doing this: However, I like to think my lion is a little more friendly looking than this one. Of course, after realizing I haven't eaten all day, I eat enough for 3 days. I often wonder if I'm I the only one who forgets to eat.

The List

Hopefully I'll get back to doing my Sunday lists regularly when my life gets back to normal.

But for this week, people I really appreciate:
1. Brittany for letting me live on the floor next to her bed for a week and for making my trip a blast!
2. The Dudleys for picking me up and giving me a place to stay while I was in limbo even though they already had a full house.
3. My mom. Recent observations of other moms and mother-daughter relationships has given me a good dose of appreciation for her. I don't express it enough, but my mom is great and the only mom I would want.

And things I'm grateful for/made me happy this week:
1. Having a really fun week away from home this week.
2. That I'm going home tomorrow.
3. That I have a week left before school starts.
4. We're going to have Internet at the house at school this year!
5. Feeling Heavenly Father's love every single day.
6. That I have a friend who travels everywhere with me, listens to me talk as late into the night or as early in the morning as I need, and doesn't mind my rambling. Do you know who it is? ;)
7. Learning much needed lessons.
8. Even though I'm sad that I'm not going to BYU, Heavenly Father really gave me the reassurance I needed that I'll be where he wants me to be.
9. The fact that I have a spectacular life and I'm blessed beyond what I can hold!

The Final Days

The last bit of my trip has been fantastic. First, BYU had a yard sale, yes a yard sale, where I got this GIANT coloring book, which was so big I had to ship it home. Along with the coloring book, I got a Disney princess Frisbee for 10 cents. Was I excited? O yea.

And what do you do after yard sale shopping but bowling?

Ok, brace yourself. Here's the BIGGEST MOST AMAZING story of the week. Brittany had 2 cousins in a ballroom dance camp at BYU this week so we went to their final performance. And you'll never guess who 2 of the judges were. Jonathan and Anna, from Dancing With the Stars.

And they performed!!

Yes, we were that close. Too bad they didn't turn around so I could get their faces.

Next up was the improv comedy act on campus where Brittany and I met up with NICOLE! She's a friend from my home stake that moved a few months ago to Idaho. It was good to catch up!

One of my favorite things about Provo is that you can walk places in the middle of the night and its relatively safe. We took a nice little trip to Sammy's which is a diner where they make shakes and put in an entire piece of pie! Or so I'm told. YUM!

So in the spirit of firsts and lasts, I had my first trip to IHOP on my last official night in Utah (Sunday nights don't count). And I did my first Chinese fire drill in the state of Utah :)

This has been an amazingly fun trip. The only down side is that it makes me sad that I'm not going to the Y this fall. Hopefully I'll be here next year for my master's degree. If only :)

Summer fun!

The past couple weeks have been jam packed with fun. Last week Brad and Bekah were in town for birthday week (the week when my mom, dad, Mindy, and me all have birthdays). I loved spending time with the PA Goldies and the Ohio Goldies.

During our family visit, mom, Bekah, and I sang at church. Can you guess who our accompanist was?

ELIZA!!!! She came and we had a wonderful visit. And she came with awesome birthday presents, which I used to create THIS masterpiece:

Eliza. Is. Wonderful.

On my 18th birthday the family went kayaking down the Little Miami. Here's Mallory and me on the way:Is a little attention on my birthday too much to ask :)

Here's the three sisters on the car ride:
No pics from the river due to water and electronic incompatibilities.

Its kind of weird that I'm an OFFICIAL adult. In a lot of ways I've been an adult for a while now, but in a lot ways I'm definitely not. And to be honest, I hope I never grow up. What fun is life if you can't act like you're 5 years old sometimes?

After the family visit I took my chances with standby and went to UTAH!!! I stayed a few days with the Dudley's (my sister-in-law's family). They were nice enough to pick me up at the airport which I greatly appreciated. While in Salt Lake I went with Bekah to Oakcrest girl's camp. For those of you who I haven't told about Oakcrest, its the camp where I want to work next summer. When I went last week I LOVED it. I really hope I get a counselor job. Wish me luck!
After Salt Lake came Provo, where I am now. I'm staying with my wonderful friend Brittany at BYU and we're having a blast. Look at this gorgeous face I get to wake up to every morning:

While in Utah I took my first bus, had my first Jamba Juice,

Played my first game of Sardines, in which I got THIS BABY:

And learned I'm a pretty intense Sardines player.

I've already had a ton of fun and there is much more to come. And in case you're wondering if I'm the kind of girl who goes to DI and tries on the ugly wedding dresses for no reason... I totally AM!I think the puffy sleeves were my favorite.

One funny mishap was that Brittany and I walked to DI and didn't realize how far away it was until we got there. So, we sat on the curb looking pretty shady until we got one of Brittany's roommates to pick us up. Totally worth it.