family time is the best time

[day eighteen... oh wait, that's today]

family dinner time

Our family dinner time is like no other. I didn't realize how much I had missed it until I came back home. We exchange stories, reminisce on days long gone, and basically laugh for the majority of the meal. While I do often eat dinner with my roommate or with a few friends, it still isn't quite like being together for family dinner. I love family dinner time, not necessarily because of the delicious food [though that is definitely a plus] but because of the time we all spend together and the memories we make. It is one of the best time of the day. I am so grateful for my family and all the time we spend laughing together; they are the greatest, and I couldn't have asked for anyone better.

on more of a Sunday note...
Vocal Point released a new album a few weeks ago called "Lead Thou Me On." It is absolutely gorgeous, and I highly recommend listening to it if possible. This is my favorite song from the album:

"Danny Boy" performed by Vocal Point

Only three more days until Thanksgiving!!

friends and microwaves

friends

Old and new, I love them all.

They drive me to my doctor's appointments.

We talk about life's great decisions.

They bring me cookies on hard days.

We watch classic Disney movies.

They force me out of my comfort zone.

We are the greatest karaoke singers.

They sit through emergency room adventures.

We make the best dinners.

They are always willing to talk, play a game, or just be crazy.

We go to the temple often.

They strengthen and inspire me daily.

I couldn't ask for anyone better.

microwaves

I haven't had access to a microwave since I moved into this apartment. I'm surprised we made it this long without one. It makes college life a little more difficult when you can't have a frozen meal every now and then.

But all that changed today.

Due to the loving contribution of concerned grandparents [and as an early Christmas present] we now have a beautiful microwave on our kitchen table.

yes I am currently eating that bag of popcorn in the front.
It's delicious by the way.

Oh how I have missed popcorn. And warm cookies. And quick hot chocolate.
yum.

comfort food

cornbread and chili

Basically the epitome of comfort food, right there.

Except grilled cheese and tomato soup of course.

You want to know the best part?

I got the middle piece of the cornbread. Without arguing with any siblings.

#winning

I love college.

#domesticgoddesses

Hayley and I basically spent the entire day in the kitchen today. and it was fabulous.

I whipped up these deliciously wonderful delicacies:

Aunt Wendy's Homemade Granola

Mom's Pumpkin Bars
aka the best fall dessert ever made. so good.

and Hayley cooked up a wonderful dinner of this from her pinterest:

Skinny Slow-Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken

I feel like I accomplished a whole lot today since I baked so much. I need to experiment more with my food. But following a recipe lowers my chances of ruining the food I already purchased...

All three are fabulous recipes. I included links to all of them if you get the baking bug, too.

On another note, I was finally able to steal get pictures from Hayley's camera.
Here are our adventures of the last two-ish weeks:

just chilling on a hammock. talking about life between conference sessions.

conference re-enactment...

new sister missionary website. we were pretty thrilled.

sunday morning session with the Churches and other members of Hayley's family

roomies!

another spontaneous movie night. the best.

And now we're at today.

Hayley's grandparents [who just happen to be friends with my grandparents] came to drop off a box for Hayley from back home. 

Enclosed were a few goodies for me as well: "13 Articles of Faith for LDS College Students," a Halloween basket, and [the best part] a polar bear hat. thanks Sister Walton!

crazy hats can only mean one thing.
cue dorky pictures of us finishing up dinner. with the hats on. of course.
we have way too much fun.
photo credit: John [who found the whole thing hysterical. I mean, who wouldn't?]

thought for the week:

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it.

The time will pass anyway." 

-Earl Nightingale

Go. Live your dream.

name that movie?

Remember to smile this week!

it's Tangled. in case you were wondering.

Start of Something New

I was listening to my summer playlist the other day and apparently I associate High School Musical with summer... anyways. Lots of HSM playing (with me singing along every now and then).
I am so excited for this summer! Lots of fun plans ahead! My first job ever, taking classes I'm excited for, a visit from my sister, hanging out with friends, meeting a new ward, having my first apartment. Lots going on out here in Provo.

Flying back to the MOUNTAINS!!

So remember this post about me and Angela getting our first apartment? Well I guess it didn't really sink in then. WE GOT OUR FIRST APARTMENT. Moving in was craziness. But I'm here. And I am now a whole month into spring term. again, craziness. Here are the sections of my current life.

The Apartment.

Let me introduce you to our lovely little place. We have a living room, dining area, and kitchen (oh I miss lots of counter space back home!). Then you enter the bedroom hallway - two bathrooms, one long sink area, and three bedrooms. In the back we have our random storage room that includes a second freezer. It's nice for the price, and (at least for now) it's home. It's super close to campus which is a definite bonus. The complex is a little older, but it's all right. We just got a new dishwasher and Angela needed a new mattress. But nothing else is falling apart too badly...except the front blinds.

The Roommates.

There are 6 girls in the apartment currently. Katie (my roommate) is engaged so I don't see her a ton. Mindy (Angela's roommate) is a senior majoring in Art History who is tons of fun and likes to make cupcakes. Christa and Lauren (Law-ren, not Lo-ren) are roommates from Heritage last year who are both crazy busy with school and work. It seems to be going pretty well so far.

The Job.

Work is...interesting. I work clear on the other side of campus at the big gray conference building. We don't have a ton of actual work to do right now, so basically I'm paid to do homework and watch TV shows. and update my blog... if I ever did that at work. It's a mile to work and a mile home, which means I'm getting my exercise. Once it gets hot (and it's getting REALLY hot) that'll be difficult so I'm currently researching bus pass options... look at me being a big girl. 

The Class.

School is fascinating. I am in a class called Intro to Non-Profit Organizations and absolutely love it! I am strongly considering doing a non-profit management minor. I'm learning a lot and really enjoy the class...too bad it isn't a major.

The Service.

I'm also a Program Director for the Utah Healing Arts program through the Center for Service and Learning here at BYU. It's awesome! I love that BYU provides so many service opportunities for everyone! It has been an adventure scheduling events and learning to run one of these programs, but I have been learning tons and met so many new people through it! Basically we go and sing in nursing and rehab centers to spread cheer. So much fun!!

The Food.

All those things I told myself about cooking a great meal every night. Yeah that didn't happen. For example our first meal in the apartment was chicken noodle soup. yum. I miss having a car so I can go get groceries. Thank goodness for awesome friends and family members who are willing to help out!

Lila's Chicken. another favorite.

The Fun.
- eaten at SLAB pizza. sooooo good.
- hang out with Skyler, Adam, and Victor, some old ward friends who live across the street.
- game night with Angela's brother and his friends.

- a trip with my aunt up to Heber for a scenic drive and dinner.

the mountains up in Heber

- pizza and frozen yogurt night with old ward friends.
- doctor's visit for ongoing cold and flu symptoms. I've been sick on and off since the start of spring term, but at least I haven't ended up in the ER yet.
- went to a missionary open house for our friend Alex and stayed there until 1 in the morning. man I love our freshman ward.

so much fun to be with these people. Alex you are going to be one fantastic missionary!
back row: Mark, Francis, Harrison, Alex, Derrick, Will
front row: Marissa, Christina, Sydney, Alex, me

with the crazy dog...

- read a book for pleasure. I have time and a couch. great combination.
- cooked meals for various dinner groups. chicken and broccoli stir fry is a definite favorite.
- spent a Saturday with my aunt and uncle and their family. got a new phone and new shoes which was a definite bonus. and delicious snow cones. yum!

snow cones!

- writing to missionaries who have entered, will enter, or are entering the MTC.
- got wireless Internet set up for our apartment. soooo nice to have wireless again.
- meeting new ward people including my Relief Society president and home teachers.

And to end... a great quote by one of my missionary friends:

"A smile can say a thousand words in any language. 

You can't fake a smile."

that kid is going to be a General Authority one day. I'm sure of it.

Life is pretty darn good right now. Summertime here I come!!

Impromptu Date Night

Around 10:30 last night, my friend Skyler called.
Did you know science has shown that taking breaks from studies will actually make your studying more effective?

At least, that's what he told me.

And so came the impromptu double date.

Mitch invited Morgan, Skyler invited me.

We went to Sammy's, a hole-in-the-wall diner in downtown Provo.
Tuesday is two-for-one shakes.
The place is famous for their pie shakes.
Mint oreo pie shakes are actually quite delicious.
And they do have pie crust chunks in them.
We had a blast! It was a fantastic break from studying.
And we got to meet Cat, one of the employees. An interesting person, to say the least.
Back to the dorms, back to studying.
Breaks sure are fun when they last.
Particularly when ice cream is involved.

Past Two Weeks...Part One

So I'm going to make this as quick and short as possible, which means not as long sentences, but lots of pictures. And as I go through it all, hopefully you can bear with the fact that this is nine days worth of blog posts.

Here goes.

Tuesday February 7th

I went and visited Jamie again today with my friends Lexi, Kate, and Morgan. She looked a ton better from the night before. But I still think it's strange to go to the hospital without being the patient. 

Later that night I went to my cousin's basketball game. Not one of my favorite things to do, but it was fun to see him play and to visit with some family. My grandparents were in town so I got to see them one more time before they headed back to Oregon.

Christopher's number 3 on the white team...

CUTE cousins!! Abby, Ashley, and Lily 

me, Abby, Ashley, and Jon (Aunt Shauna in the background) 

me and Conner... I couldn't get him to take a cute picture 

I couldn't find Christopher after the game, but I DID find his brother Clark!!
He was a good sport and took a picture with me - thanks Clarky :)

Wednesday February 8th
Today was craziness. But to start it all off, I went to the temple with my awesome friends Amy, Lindee, Brooke, and Derrick! Sure it was early (6:45 am...yikes) but going to the temple is such a great way to get out of bed and start the day off.

Lindee, Brooke, me, and Amy. Derrick took the picture :)
Isn't that the most beautiful view from the temple?! I LOVE the mountains!

I took a Book of Mormon midterm (90% on the multiple choice!), wrote a two page paper for Book of Mormon, and then I went and visited Jamie again - she looked even better!! I am honestly convinced that optimism is the greatest thing that can help someone heal.

Angela and I made a run to Wal-Mart for her craft supplies for her elementary ed visual arts class. Seriously. That is a class and she has the best homework assignments. She's had to make paper bag moccasins, homemade scratch art, and even a valentine for some extra credit. I'm kind of jealous. But it's fun to watch her get excited about her projects. Anyways, we got excited in the school supplies section, and then we went to Krispy Kreme for a little treat. You'll have to go here to see pictures though. And believe me, you'll want to see pictures.

Thursday February 9th
I went to go visit Jamie with Andy and Austin. I had a blast at Ward Prayer. The end.

Friday February 10th
Went to classes. I went to visit Jamie again with some friends. Studied geography. Hung out with Hattie for a while. And then I dragged her to a Cannon Center "Mix and Mingle Activity" to support our friend Sarah who was going in as "the bachelorette" for the show part of the event. So funny!!

Hattie, Brooke, Kara, and Nick supporting Sarah at the event....from the back row of course :)

Some of the girls in our hall invited me to go see The Vow, but the show was sold out. So we went and got ice cream at Farr's. yum :)

Saturday February 11th
Today was spent doing more studying, more homework, and starting to organize my thoughts for the young women's group on the 26th. I also finished up my Gospel Doctrine lesson (YAY!!!). I went with my friends, Ethan and Hattie, to go get more Tillamook ice cream!

Tillamook Mudslide = my FAVORITE ice cream ever!!

And then Hattie and I watched a movie. And then I went to bed.

All in all, a fantastic second week of February.

Exams and the Cannon

After a productive and stressful Friday, I fell into bed exhausted. Woke up the next morning around 10:30 feeling even more exhausted and like my cold had simply become aggravated overnight.

The morning started out stressful as I had my first exam of the semester at 2:30 pm and still had a lot to cover in my studying. I do not like the fact that my spanish exams are now graded by computer. It's fine for multiple choice questions or fill-in-the-blanks where they provide options to put in the blank, but for the ones where you have to come up with the answer yourself, one misplaced accent gets the whole question wrong. Did I mention there was a writing portion? 150 word essay on an exam that is later graded by a computer? yeah, that was great.

Anyways, I have no idea how I did, but most of the content was review from my sophomore year of spanish, so I feel okay about the exam. Still not entirely confident about those written portions though. I do know I did well on the listening part (thank you Profe for forcing us to listen to all those horribly long and difficult to understand podcasts all year in AP).

This is a thought that was running through my head most of that morning. One of my favorite quotes by one of my favorite apostles. I love it.

I came back from the two hour test, took a short nap as I could barely think straight, woke up and realized that I hadn't eaten anything all day. I had some crackers while I was studying for the test, but other than that, nothing. So I headed up to dinner by myself because I was starving.

Dinner at the Cannon is always an entertaining time. Found a group from the ward to sit with which included a bunch of people I wouldn't usually go eat with. An interesting group, some fun conversations, ate some "Navajo Taco" and a salad. I was still hungry, but everyone else was ready to leave, so I made myself a waffle and went and sat with my friends, Brooke and Derrick.

Which led to me and Derrick staying for another hour in the Cannon while various people from the ward cycled through the table. It's always fun when you take a little longer to eat to just sit and visit with all the people who come to the table. We have such an incredible ward!!

It's also a lot more fun going to the Cannon with someone who hasn't been there before, or with someone who still thinks the food is wonderful. Derrick, for example, just moved in this semester and thought the "Navajo Taco" was delicious. I, on the other hand, have had it multiple times and don't find it all that amazing. Honestly, I only got it because the other options were a hamburger (which I typically try to avoid if possible) and some strange shrimp pasta. When you go with someone who still sees the Cannon as a novelty, it makes the experience a little more entertaining and you tend to come out with a slightly better attitude towards the food. Actually, just go eat with someone. It's more fun that way.

But honestly, I am so excited for when I get to cook my own food. I guess that's one perk of growing up.

More homework. More housing research. And then bed. Oh the excitement of my Saturday nights.

Snow-Capped Mountains

I forgot how incredibly beautiful Utah can be in the winter time. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I love the mountains. There is something incredibly majestic about these huge pieces of earth sticking out of the flat surface of the valley. I find them to have a protective feeling; I don't feel enclosed in a cage but more like I'm being held in a hug. Mountains are truly evidence to me of the incredible creations of our Heavenly Father and how blessed we are to be on this earth.

I took a trip after spanish today over to the new Heritage Halls and the Bean Museum parking lots to get some pictures of the mountains because they are incredibly gorgeous. And I played around with some of the editing features on my Mac, which was fun.

view of Rock Canyon above the Harold B. Lee Library

view of Y Mountain above the library. again.

from the JKB. there's actually a really pretty mountain back there, the clouds are just covering it. 

the pretty mountain you should have been able to see in the previous picture. but this is a way better view.

the bell tower. it plays a different hymn every hour. love BYU!

Mount Timpanogos. in black and white. pretty gorgeous.

pretty snow covered mountain and me playing with my photo editing tools.

But honestly, the pictures don't do the view any justice.

Now about my day...

I realized that there are actually a lot of guys (particularly guys from my ward) who go eat breakfast between 7:15 and 7:30 am on Tuesday and Thursday. So it's nice to have someone to talk to (and try to wake up) in those early morning hours. So I ate, and then headed up to class with my friend Ben from my ward. I really enjoy government, and I am so glad that I do. Currently, the only thing not motivating me to go to that class is the early hour. Otherwise, I absolutely love it.

I did a lot of spanish homework today. Trying to get ahead still requires those hours, just at a different time than usual.

Met with my geography TA. Apparently I have an atlas assignment due tomorrow. Since I don't have the atlas...this should be interesting.

Picked up letters from the University Accessibility Center. Now comes the fun part of telling my professors "the story." I love people's reactions!

Book of Mormon celebration (kind of...) with Hattie. And Haley. We went and tracked down some Tillamook ice cream (the best cheese and ice cream in the world) at a local grocery store. And then came back and talked while we ate ice cream for the hour before ward prayer.

Haley after ice cream...

mint Pirouette cookies + Tillamook mint chocolate chip ice cream = happy Hattie 

this should be a Tillamook ad. just saying.

that's me. happy college student showing off my school spirit while eating ice cream. yep.

Hey question: anyone know how to get pictures to go side-by-side in blogger? 

Ward prayer with great friends and singing/figuring out songs on the piano and talking and dancing around like crazy people and playing chopsticks and staying up way too late. Enough said. Check out Angela's post here for pictures from tonight.

To end an awesome day:

I just want to say that I am incredibly grateful that I was able to come out to BYU at the beginning of last semester. So many miracles happened last year that made it possible for me to come to school for fall semester, and to still be here for winter. I am just so thankful to be here in this amazing place with such amazing people. 


Go Cougars!

That's Life

From Monday:
Sinus infection turned cold turned to swollen nose bridge that requires a doctor visit and CT scan. Which means I missed my three classes today and need to get enough sleep tonight to make it to psych and physical science. yay.
From Tuesday:

Which of course didn't happen. At least physical science didn't mainly because I decided to come back from psych and take a nap and didn't wake up until seven which was an hour into physical science. It felt amazing to sleep that long :) I love naps...

So now it's Friday. My nose is even more swollen than before and it's just on the right side so the ENT doctor I saw on Wednesday wanted to see me again today but of course the only appointment they had available was during my writing class. ugh. So I haven't been to writing at all this week so I have a TON of homework and catch up to do this weekend. Plus I've been really homesick the past several days mostly because my mommy isn't here to take care of me, but also just because it's finally starting to sink in that I've actually moved out. For the longest time, BYU has really felt like an extended-stay EFY...

I love my siblings...Can you find Nathan?? :)

Next problem: What should my major be??? or at least What classes should I take next semester?? Because registration is in two and a half weeks. yikes! I have my list of the 180 or so majors at BYU and have slowly been narrowing them down. And then there's the classes dilemma... *deep sigh* I guess that's part of growing up.

Growing up really isn't all it's made up to be.

On the bright side:

my good friend Kaitlyn came to visit me!!! We grew up together in West Jordan. It was soooo much fun to catch up with her - thanks for coming Kaitlyn :)

which made me really excited for when I get to see her, Deanna, and Danielle (my best friends when I lived in Utah) in two weekends!!!! woo hoo!!

Stake Conference is this weekend which means I don't have to teach!! I mean, I love teaching Sunday School but it's kind of nice to get a break. But the next lesson is on Ephesians which includes the Armor of God which is pretty much my favorite lesson ever :) I love the New Testament :)

You know life would be a lot simpler if there was a religious studies major...my mind would be made up by now.

I get to have home-cooked food on Sunday night!!!! Don't get me wrong, I love the Cannon Center, but I still need something that's a little healthier and, well, homemade. I'm excited :)

So those are some things I try to think about as I get homesick or my nose starts to throb...before I go to put on a warm compress, let me just say one more thing.

Vocal Point. If you haven't heard about the BYU a capella group, now you have. They are competing on the NBC a capella competition "The Sing Off" and they are AWESOME!!! I look forward to watching that every other weekend right now as I don't have time on Monday night and don't really have time until Thursday or Friday night. They perform again this Monday night!! and I'm really excited :) haha just youtube their songs from "The Sing Off" and you'll see why....

Photo courtesy of NBC "The Sing Off"

Good bye, good night. Off to another warm compress, to finish laundry, and to write some letters!