Finals Week Sanity Pt. 2: Roomie Time

My college experience would not have been half as amazing as it was without my AWESOME roommates. The ones you will see pictured here are Sarah, Theresa, and Kaitlyn. Although you don't know much about them you will soon (hint to up coming post). This past week the 4 of us have been spending a lot of time together and keeping each other sane.

On Monday Sarah and I made sugar cookies with homemade frosting (PURPLE!) As you can see, they turned out... Except the one elf that was too thin so he burnt. As you can see I made that quite literal with my frosting decor ;) I tried to be really artistic and pretend I was from the Food Network.

Here's the lovely Sarah, curlers and all. The big red cup covered in flour is mine and was our substitute rolling pin. The ONE thing our kitchen is missing.

Well to say the least we had a lot of energy and the next couple of things will make you think we are crazy. But we are, so thats ok. :)

So I started a flour fight. Perfect hit! haha

This picture below doesn't even show the front of me which was pretty darn white.

And we had extra frosting. So naturally....

I am not proud.

I told you finals week caused madness!! After the frosting incident we decided that sleep was necessary and retired for the night.

Depicted below is an example of our "Living Room Study Sessions". We all bring our stuff out and attempt to study together. What you can't see is all the books and papers spread around. It's quite a sight. Sometimes more laughing goes on than studying.

Last night, for their Christmas presents, I treated the girls to dinner at the Olive Garden. It was nice time together and break from testing and studying.

Kaitlyn and Sarah at dinner.

Me and Theresa at dinner.

After dinner, because it is one of most favorite places, we took an excursion to WalMart. Where else?! The following pictures are just us having fun at the kiddie arcade.

As you can see, I have great roommates and friends for life. They accept me for my crazy self and we all mesh perfectly. We are the only set of roommates I have heard of that have had absolutely NO issues. Just none. They are great!.I love hanging out with them and they have helped make this semester the incredible and FUN experience it was.

Finals Week Sanity Pt. 1: What I've Learned...

A deserted campus... Constant quiet. An unusual feeling of expectancy and unease. This can only mean one thing. Finals week. Any of you who have endured a finals week living at a University know the insanity that usually ensues. Unexplained laughing fits, deep analytical thoughts at inappropriate moments, I even saw a girl today spending her time on a field making weird designs with her footprints all alone. Literal madness. My friend Matthew said it perfectly, "During finals week, any given word you say to someone can cause uncontrollable laughter or violent weeping. Sometimes, there's both simultaneously". Its true. Everyone is constantly studying, worrying about grades, and anxiously waiting for the semester to finally be over. Causing frying of the brain cells and unexplainable activity. As I'm typing my brain is reeling with..."Phi coefficient measures effect size for the 2X2 chi square matrix partwriting rule #31 always raise the 7th degree of your chord up diatonic patterns hutterite luets are separated by conservatism and polka dots Yhat=bX+a transpose minor minuet into 8 keys solfege solfege solfege and russian communism". So! I decided that this week (now that its Tuesday) I am going to do daily posts on what is keeping me sane during finals week. This first one I've been working on for a couple days and it will be entitled "What I Have Learned My First Semester in College". Thinking about everything I have learned keeps me sane because I realize how much I grown and that this was one of the most fun times of my life. Are you ready?

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT COLLEGE DURING MY FIRST SEMESTER

-Logan is cold. 100 miles North really does make a temperature difference. I CAN survive negative temperatures.

-The Lord knows exactly what you need and tender mercies are a blessing of everyday life. (see previous post)

-In college, you can never have too many movies because you are constantly watching them.

-You can always wait an extra week to do laundry if it means you can do it for free.

-College and High School are more different than any lecture can prepare you for.

-Weekly temple visits are hard to do but entirely worth it.

-Chocolate milk can cure any bad day.

-It's possible to have a Freshman MINUS 15

-Cure to sleeping through negative temperatures with concrete walls: Glow in the dark footie pajamas, gloves, hat, and 3 blankets on top of your comforter.

-Education is a choice and privilege we are to take advantage of.

-Living the Jedi code would not be such a bad idea.

-You are the master of your own time.

-When your drinking cups are as big as a flower vase, your roommates will use it as a flower vase.

-Sleeping always comes second.

-Eating always comes third.

-When you move out and live on your own, you learn more about yourself than you can describe to anyone.

-When you live in an apartment with 4 girls, the Notebook gets watched excessively. (Our record was 4 times in 3 days I think...)

-You can have a lot of condiments in your fridge and have nothing to put it on.

-Roommates can make or break your experience. I am extremely blessed with RAD roomies.

-Your oven can be a good substitute for a fireplace.

-Guys don't date. And they don't date because they are bad at dating. Deiter F Uchtdorf said it so its a commandment. Start practicing, boys!

-When you don't check expiration dates for your roommates who are never home, you find alien species living in your fridge.

-I have discovered that baking and cooking are a form of therapy for me. I like to do it!

-My family is truly amazing, and the BEST FRIENDS I will ever have.

-Boys can be more domestic than girls. I learned this when I had to go to a guy friend's apartment so he could sew a dress together for me. When I got there, his roomates were paper mashaeing hats and baking a casserole.

-Exceeding your phone bill by $200 means you shouldn't call home so much.

-When you go on a date, make sure the guy knows how old you are BEFORE you go.

-Money?... What is this distant memory?....

-When someone in your apartment is ALWAYS singing (and I mean always), don't be surprised when you all have the same song stuck in your head.

-The scriptures really have all the answers.

-University propaganda cannot be trusted.

-I LIVE for grocery store deals. They are divine. It IS possible to buy 3 weeks worth of groceries for 20 dollars. Trust me.

-Music is more deep and complicated than I ever knew.

-Driving for 2 hours in rush hour traffic in bad weather makes any other driving situation seem easy and short.

-Having a shelf 6 inches above your bed makes for a lot of goose eggs.

-People you know... Your friends... ACTUALLY get married. (I got news of my 5th high school friend to be engaged today)

-If it isn't a necessity, don't buy it.

-A macbook is the best investment you could ever make.

-I actually like math. The fact that there is ONE right answer and ancient dead guys gave you the exact pattern to find the answer is actually kind of nice.

-Life goes by quick. Stick to the way. Fulfill your purpose. And live every second.

-When your microwave dies, so do your meal options. And a little part of your soul.

--Filling my gas tank= $28; Tuition payment= $4000; Life lessons learned= Priceless--

Sunday's Spiritual Thought

Psalms 145: 9 "the Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works"

If only I could describe to each and every one of you how much I have grown while being away at school. It feels like it has been a spiritual growth spirt! I feel like there has been this constant push from the Lord that has been experience after experience to make me grow immensely. I am grateful for that because I know the mission I have to fulfill on this Earth. I feel inadequate to what I'm supposed to do but I know that with the Lord's help and my strongest efforts, I can fulfill that mission and be that strong person I know I have to be. My growth is maybe something that you can't see when I come home for short periods but I can assure you that the lasting effects of this semester will stay with me forever. I feel such complete joy at what I have learned and developed here. My decision to come to Utah State, live where I have, and participate in everything I have has been truly inspired every step of the way. I wish I could express every ounce of joy and gratitude I have. I can attest to it filling every fiber of my being and having the spirit so close is a true blessing. My testimony of the scriptures, prayer, the atonement, love, and the guiding hand of the Lord have increased ten fold. I feel infinite gratitude for these things and the effect they have on changing my life.

The topic which I am writing about today was manifest to me clearly this week. I was going to start this post by telling you how hard of a week it has been for me. I soon realized that doing that would take away from the message that I really want to share. So all I will say is that this week has been the hardest and most stressful I have had to endure all semester. Today, someone in sacrament meeting said this, "Life is beautiful. For every bad or hard time I have had, I have had a beautiful and great one". I would restate this to match the way I am feeling. Life is Beautiful. For every hard or trying time I have had, the Lord has made up the difference and magnified my happy times ten-fold through his tender mercies. That is the lesson I learned this week; the Lord's tender mercies. Although it was a hard week to endure I truly was given tender mercies to keep me going and to show me that the Lord will never forget about me.

1 Ne. 1:20 "But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance". My favorite part of this scripture is "to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance". Tender mercies are powerful and they give immense power to those who receive them, even unto deliverance. I feel like I really was delivered multiple times this week by the power of the Lord. Elder Bednar defines tender mercies as, "the very personalized and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ". The more I have thought about it, I realize that I have received tender mercies many times and just not recognized it. What a sad thought. So I made the decision this week, as a result of my experience to take President Eyring's challenge and keep a Tender Mercies Journal that I will write in every night. I know that he would not have challenged us to do so unless it would bless our lives. I am anxious to receive those blessings, because heaven knows how much I need them. :) Elder Bednar also addresses what the scripture meant by being chosen to receive tender mercies. "I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are available to all of us and that the Redeemer of Israel is eager to bestow such gifts upon us. To be or to become chosen is not an exclusive status conferred upon us... Rather, it is our hearts and our aspirations and our obedience which definitively determine whether we are counted as one of God's chosen". I truly believe in God's tender mercies to each of us and am grateful for everything I have learned and received in the past 4 months. I know this has been time consuming, but thank you to each of you for reading. I will leave you with one last quote by Elder Bednar. "...the Lord's tender mercies do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Faithfulness and obedience enables us to receive these important gifts and, frequently, the Lord's timing helps us to recognize them. We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord's tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live. When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequities in life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance". I add my testimony to his. Thanks again for reading this lengthy post. :)

Nail Salon Comedy

This is SO true... Enjoy!

It is finished...

FINALLY!

As you can probably tell I have been anxiously (and slightly obsessively) been working on doing a complete remodel of my blog. I wanted a new look! Let me know if there is too much stuff.... Trying to fit your entire self onto the size of a computer monitor is no easy feat, but I don't want it to feel cluttered. I would love your feedback! And keep your eyes open for some more frequent posts!

ENJOY :)

Come Again Soon!...

Just so you know...

I. LOVE. LIFE. :)

Sunday's Spiritual Thought

Today, I have been pondering a lot about home. I felt strongly that I had to leave home before I truly realized what home means to me. What defines a home? This is what I came up with... Home is somewhere familiar, safe, and where people care about you. Home is where you feel at peace with where you are and who is around you. Home is the people that want you to succeed and fulfill every dream you have. Home is driving down the street and thinking of everyone who lives on it and thinking of what you can do for them. Home is being protected with love, law, and laughter. Home is love. I realized today, as I was driving down my street that I have a true home. In fact, home is more than 10137 Heytesbury Lane in Sandy. It is a feeling. It is love. I know that I have a heavenly home where I can have all of these things I defined and more with my eternal family and with the guidance of a loving heavenly father. I can't wait to more fully discover the feeling of home when I can be there. My homes: 10137 Heytesbury Lane, 113 Merrill Hall in Logan, Willow Canyon 7th Ward, anytime I am with family or friends that make me have that feeling of "home", and when I can be uplifted by the holy spirit and feel my Father in Heaven close to me. This post was a little scatter-brained but I hope you got what I mean. Home is where the heart is :)

Picnik

I've discovered something... It's called picnik. It's a website where you can edit your pictures for free. You are limited in what you can do for free or you can pay a small fee and get the full access. You can do all sorts of editing like teeth whitening, make-up and hair highlight additions, shine be gone, face thinner (WOO HOO!), eye color enhancement, framing, stickers, and text additions. Just so you know that this is a great resource and you can see a little bit of what I've done with it :)

Before After

One Month

So pretty much... I miss Jennie. She is on a very long vacation and I'm so glad she's having TONS of fun! This is the longest we've been apart since i was 8 years old. I haven't seen her in the month!! Yeah. I miss her. Thats all. :)

My Colorful College Life

I know, I know... I have been very bad at keeping updated on my college life. It has been so super crazy! So in order to use my creative juices that aren't allowed in research papers and music theory dictations I will present the last three weeks of my life in colors.

RED is spelled with an RRRR! and was the color of my bandana at the awesome South Campus Pirate Party! I am Vice President of student government for the South Campus Area and we planned this activity for our residents. It was a huge success! 70 people came and participated from our housing area. We projected Hook on the wall, had a costume contest, and giant treasure chests full of movie theater popcorn. I love being involved in things like this!

ORANGE is celebratory of my favorite season and will represent the beautiful drives home that I have had the past two weeks. These are actual pictures of Sardine Canyon in the fall. And these aren't just good pictures, I have really seen it like this. It makes me stop in the hustle of life and contemplate the beauty around me when I see such beautiful things in nature.

YELLOW is a fun one! Yellow reminds me of all the chicken noodle soup I've been eating for the past two weeks. First, because I have been sick with a nasty cold that won't get better because I don't sleep. Chicken Noodle really does heal your soul when your under the weather, I have become a firm believer. It helped me have the motivation to go to class. Second, because of the plummeting temperatures and WHITE snow we've been having here in Logan. I do love that chicken noodle soup... Snow? Not yet.

GREEN is for my strong-willed attempt to stay healthy as a freshman and not gain those dreaded 15, but instead try to loose them before they come. Fruits and veggies are your friend! This task comes at the sacrifice of more sleep to exercise and the unsatisfaction of many cravings. Not that I have the money to fulfill my cravings anyway. That's another

good one! Green is also for how little of it I am seeing in the form of money... AKA I'm broke.

BLUE has two fun associations. The first was the Utah State vs. BYU football game. No surprises in the outcome of that one... This was fun because I visited all my friends at BYU in order to watch this game. When looking at the spectators all you could see was blue seeing as the team colors are the same. You couldn't tell the fans apart from each team. In my picture, you can't tell, but if you look veerrryy closely you can see that I am the lone USU fan. The next association for this color is the USU Homecoming Pudding Dance. Sound like fun? I thought so too! So me and my friend Karli ate chocolate pudding and geared up for a night of edible mess! We were thinking chocolate and vanilla Jell-o brand heaven... Note to self: NOT REAL PUDDING! It was blue gucky, pasty, slime. The outcome?? Just look for yourself.

PURPLE is simply the color I dyed my hair. Yup I did. Honest to goodness Purple. It was an outward gesture of the inward rebellion I feel towards life and I wanted everyone to know how rebellious I am. haha just kidding. I just wanted to do it because I thought it would be fun and cooky and get me some attention. I put one streak on the middle-ish top of my hair and then did the underneath. I was unable to capture this change in a photo unfortunately.... It wouldn't show up. But you can use your imagination!

????????????????

BLACK is last and certainly not least. Well a little bit of both. Most and least. Black is the color to sum up my every day college life. This is because I am seeing WAY too much black like this...

And not enough of the black I love to see behind my eyelids between the hours of 11:30 and 5:30. With that said... I absolutely love it. :)

And Today's Forcast Is...

LOGAN

High of 37 degrees (not including wind chill) 

and...

snow

in september...

brrrr

LDS Gems

I discovered something amazing that I feel I must share. It is called LDS Gems. Go onto the LDS website, connect to the library and then click the link for LDS Gems. You can select Youth, Single Adult, Family, or Church History Gems. Gems are quotes from the general authorities that will be sent to your email every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I have recieved some of the most touching and inspiring quotes through this and it reminds me through the week to keep my perspective. I highly encourage doing it! Just type in your email and you are subscribed!

Sunday's Spiritual Thought

Today was my first fast and testimony meeting in my college ward. I had heard that there is never a gap in testimonies in my ward and I found this to be very true. I feel strongly that I will learn great and beautiful lessons from the people in my ward. We are all experiencing the same types of things and can relate to spiritual struggles. Through this I know we will learn and grow through each others testimonies. I bore mine today. One of my New Year's Resolutions was to bearing my testimony more often. I have doing well with it seeing as this is the first resolution I can even remember still in September. I set this goal  because of what amazing things it does for me. I truly believe that a testimony is strengthened in the bearing of it. I talked about my struggles the first week of school and how I have grown from them. Something that I mentioned was a phrase that hit me in the General Relief Society meeting, which was amazing! Pres. Eyring said, "Determination is a result of faith". I know that this is something I needed to have reiterated to me. My faith has driven me to stay determined in my way on the path through this hard and different experience of college. I am grateful for what I am learning and for the great joy that is mine through the gospel. 

Typical...

So I came back to my apartment last Sunday to find my roommates making peanut butter cookies from a recipe they found on the internet. Little did I know that it would turn into a typical college cooking experience. Until I smelled it... haha

Sunday's Spiritual Thought

"Adam fell that men might be, and men are, that they might have joy".

Joy is more than happiness, it encompasses your entire being. Joy is an eternal emotion. Unlike most emotions, joy has the ability to last fully for long periods of time. The purest and most bright feeling I have ever experienced is sure joy in the gospel and in my Savior. I know that this gospel is the light and the only way to experience everlasting and eternal joy. I am so grateful that I have this knowledge. I recognize the immense blessing that it is for me to be able to feel joy now, and if I choose wisely, forever.

"In order to have joy, you need to understand that, as a child of your Heavenly Father, you inherited divine traits and spiritual needs--and just like a fish needs water, you need the gospel and the companionship of the Holy Ghost to be truly, deeply happy. Because you are the offspring of God (see Acts 17:28), it is incompatible with your eternal nature to do wrong and feel right. It cannot be done. It is part of your spiritual DNA, as it were, that peace, joy, and happiness will be yours only to the degree you live the gospel."

-Marcus B. Nash Ensign, Nov. 2006, 49

Labor Day Weekend

New Moon Baby!

Click on this link for the latest New Moon Meet Jacob Black trailer. AHH! :) I am very excited so far with how they've done on my favorite book of the series. This book beat them all combined! This new trailer/commentary helped confirm my "Team Jacob" status :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU61zxhPT1g

This second link is an extended edition trailer. Some of the footage doesn't have the best quality, but it's quite the extra peek! I liked both of them a lot. They're great! Can't wait for the movie!!! With this link you might need to copy and paste. For it to work. Let them sit and buffer for a while so you don't have breaks. On my computer they needed a good 3 or 4 minutes to load so there wouldn't be any interruptions. ENJOY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo-RN0nkbRM

Sunday's Spiritual Thought

Top Ten: Marriage

I am starting a new series of posts called Top Ten. My life is not stable enough to have a specific day to always do it, but just watch for them. This is part one of my Top Ten's...

I really just have to get this post out there. 

Marriage. 

Contrary to popular belief, I will NOT be getting married any time soon, thank you very much.

I don't know why, but it is a common topic of conversation among many that the college experience will whisk me into the sunset with a man in tow within 2 years. Supposedly at USU the marriage scene is red hot these days. I am hoping to overcome the statistics. I am not exaggerating when I say that MANY people really think this. I have been voted first one of my group of friends to get married after graduation, years 2008 AND 2009. My friends from the ward have bets with my young womens leaders that I will be the first one off. According to one friend, I will be married within 10 months because of my "rate" at which I date men.(?) (keep in mind that in 3 years I have dated 3 guys) Others attribute an early marriage to the fact that I am smart and talented (which actually intimidates guys and scare them away. At least that's what I tell myself...haha) Are these logical arguments? I think not. Is any of this based in ACTUAL fact? No. Although I am flattered by the supposed amount of maturity and the compliments that accompany these "titles", I cannot submit myself to think that they will yield a husband so swiftly. SO! With that lengthly intro....

TOP TEN REASONS WHY I WILL NOT BE MARRIED WITHIN 2 YEARS

10. I can't dance. (A great social tool to use in snatching husbands)

9. It will take me more time than that to be able to fit into a single digit dress size.  

8. I'm spunky and stubborn. I just wanna prove everyone wrong.

7. I'm sure God will bless my future husband by allowing time for me to learn how to cook. 

6. I will scare away at least 80% of candidates with my eccentric-ness, OCD, and quirks.

5. 20 hours of alone time in a practice room every week, doesn't exactly constitute as a "social" activity where I can meet eligible bachelors.

4. My sarcasm will woo men into a love-struck trance and they won't be able to resist me.

3. I am secretly terrified of men and the dating process.

2. I am very hopeful for a mission in my near future.

1. The best things in life are worth waiting for.

*This blog is not to be referred to when I get married no matter when it is. 

It's Official!

I'm all moved in. I'm officially a resident of #113 Merrill Hall in Logan UT. It's ten degrees cooler than home and I know a grand total of 8 people on all of campus. How many sumo wrestlers could you fit in my bathroom? Probably one. Classes start tomorrow at 8:30 and I wanna pee my pants I'm so scared. I haven't met my roommate yet but lets just say... I think I have her beat in the shoe department. :) No really, she looks like she'll be really fun. Here's a peek into my new living space. It is actually very nice and perfect for me I think. What do you think?!

This is my side of the room. Kinda cozy. 

Somewhat similar to home-ish.

This is my work/desk area. Very well equipped :)

My decorative area... To...

Express myself?

Storage and Counter Space.

Closet. Smaller. Much.

Food. This is very significant. My first meal 

on campus. Hard boiled egg, carrots, and 

snak pak pudding. mmmm

You try finding what to make from tuna and 

spaghetti sauce!

Kitchen.

NYC!

This last week I went to New York with Mom and Dad. We had a lot of fun! Thanks again you guys! ... I won't be eating that well in a long while :)