two decades

I turned 20 today.
Twenty years old.
That's old.
I am no longer a teenager.
I am officially an adult.
Yikes.
That means I have been alive for 7,300 days.
That's a whole lot of days.

Today was just fantastic. 
I trudged through a foot of snow up to campus.
Which was actually so much fun.
I went to New Testament.
With three of my best friends from freshman year.
Then we all went and ate lunch with my other great friend who just got back from her Italy study abroad. 
Then I had my other religion class.
Which I am beyond excited about. 
I'm hoping I got a job that I had part two of the interview for today.
I got to talk with a few other good friends for a while.
And then I got started on my New Testament homework.
I just read for about an hour. It was lovely.
To top it all off, we had a fun ward FHE activity.
Finally, I am back home.
Attempting to finish the puzzle John and I started yesterday.
We'll see how this goes.

Happy 20th Birthday to me!

On another note, I can't really believe I have made it this far. I am so grateful to every single one of you who have made it possible for me to be where I am today. There are a lot of exciting adventures in store this year, and I cannot wait to see where I end up!

Thank you to all of my incredible friends and family members who have been such great blessings in my life. I love you all. So much! Thanks for making today so wonderful!

I came across this song the other day. It completely reminds me of freshman year, great friends, and happy memories. And it seemed appropriate to share today, given that it's kind of that "year in review" time of the year. 

"Time of Our Lives"

by Tyrone Wells

This is my new mantra for this next year of life. Along with "remember to smile." 

I am going to make

the rest of my life

the BEST of my life.

Since I am at home, by myself, eating a birthday brownie that was left over from FHE, I am in kind of a weird dance-party mood. So enjoy the random song that I've been listening to quite a bit today. 

"You're the Voice"

by John Farnham

Basically, today was fantastic.
Thanks for making it great. 

Keep on smiling, y'all.

story time

I have been pretty great at doing the thirty days of Thanksgiving. But I haven't really told you stories from the past two weeks about life. So without further ado, here are a few highlights from life [mostly in chronological order]:

• Hayley and I like having movie nights. Most recent films were Letters to Juliet [fabulously cheesy] and National Treasure [forever one of my favorites].
• Harrison invited me to a group date cooking competition his building hosted. After cooking and enjoying the meal, we played Apples to Apples with his roommate and his date. It was super fun!
• After picking me up from aforementioned activity, John, Hayley, and I all came back to our apartment to watch Avengers [which was an awesome movie by the way]! Well, John and I watched it. Hayley sort of slept through most of the movie...
• Grandma and Grandpa Hyde came to town!! I spent a few hours with them at Target [see microwave post] and then Cafe Rio for dinner before they headed to the basketball game with my cousins.
• John and Hayley's friend, Scott, joined us for a Sunday dinner [see picture below]. We played some games, went to ward prayer, and watched Scott perform some card tricks while Hayley was continuously stumped by each one. 

• I Skyped with Rachel to discuss boys life. I can't believe she could will be out here next year!
• Last Sunday, John and a friend joined us for taco night and we watched the CES fireside by Bishop Gérald Caussé. It was such a great fireside!!
• Stayed up past midnight to complete my winter semester registration. I will be taking the second half of New Testament, Missionary Preparation, and two history classes.

• I studied hard and earned a 92% on my New Testament midterm!
• I have almost finalized housing plans for next semester.
• Hattie and I met up for lunch at the Cougareat on Wednesday. Gosh that girl is awesome! I have missed being in the same hall as her.
• I hung out with Devon quite a bit. Cosby Show, grocery trips, piano in the lounge, Wii games, and How to Train Your Dragon are just a few of the exciting things we've done.
• Hayley and I talk in Spanish, and I attempt to help her study. Good thing she has native speakers to help her out as well!

Five of my amazing friends have received their mission calls in the past week. I am so excited for each of them!! It's amazing how fast missionary work is progressing! By the way, all of them are girls. So far I have friends going to:

• Jacksonville Florida
• Minneapolis Minnesota Spanish-speaking
• Porto Alegre Brazil
• Madrid Spain
• Billings Montana

I cannot wait for some of my other dear friends to get their calls in the coming weeks!!

• We had a Relief Society activity on Thursday to learn to make a super easy pumpkin cheesecake. Only five girls attended, and one of the guys in our ward joined us. It was super fun, delicious, and I got to make some new friends.
• Shopping adventures of the last few days: I went to Kohl's with Devon to help him find some snow boots, thermals, gloves, and a hat. That was entertaining. Then yesterday, Hayley and I went to Gap to use a coupon we had. That girl made me try on a few things I never would have touched. Also made for an entertaining experience.
• Brooke was able to get me tickets to Divine Comedy, so Friday night, Devon and I went to the show with her. absolutely hilarious. I haven't laughed that hard in so long!! There was a BYU-based Mulan, Dobby and Jason Bourne, body language tips for guys and girls, and so much more. Such a great show! And free glow sticks. That was pretty awesome, too.

Yesterday was an adventure. Hayley's friend, Scott, [same one as before] decided to come to Gap with us, but he needed to move his car. Upon searching, we discovered his only set of keys were locked inside his car. For almost two hours, the three of us were outside with two wire coat hangers and a few butter knives trying to unlock the door. Needless to say, it was freezing and absolutely hilarious.

Scott prying the door open with butter knives while Hayley maneuvered the wire coat hanger to catch on the lock button. We tried multiple methods for forever, but to no avail. Hayley and I finally left, and Scott and his dad were able to get it open a few minutes later. 

Of course, there have also been all the little things. Like homework, laundry, visiting teaching, cleaning the apartment, talking to family, cooking, and meeting new people. And sleep every now and then.

But here are the two biggest events:

1. I am officially declared a history teaching major.

Now I have history pre-req classes to work on besides my generals. Should be a blast! 

2. It SNOWED!! I may have mentioned that before, but I'm super excited so I'll say it again. And I actually have pictures to show now.

outside our apartment. the people next door built a snowman!! 

view outside our window right after the storm 

find the Y on Y Mountain!!

and the view from the parking lot. GORGEOUS!!!
I love snow. and mountains. so this is just perfection.

And that's basically my life. 

The end.

let it snow

snow

I really really love snow. like a lot.

Today was the first big snow storm of the season, and I am so excited!

It's the perfect excuse to have some mint hot chocolate while curled up on the couch to just watch the flakes fall.

Snow falling makes listening singing along to Christmas music even better.

You get all bundled up and go sledding, build snowmen, and have snowball fights.

so. much. fun.

Also I got a string of Christmas lights today! And snow makes today just about the best day ever.

Snow means the holiday season is even closer. Which means happiness is coming.

I just love this time of the year.

In the absence of pictures, please enjoy the first [of many] holiday song on the blog!

snow by bing crosby

Happy first snow everyone!!

you will survive. I promise.