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. :)