Sunday, November 24, 2013

Lamest post ever

I am ashamed to admit that I did not take a single picture this week. It was also a pretty uneventful week, so I'll just give a short recap.

On Monday, my FHE group played Apples to Apples. On Wednesday, I didn't go to the men's basketball game because not a single one of my friends had time to go, and I didn't want to go alone. We lost the game by two points, so I'm okay that I missed it because I would have just been disappointed anyway! On Thursday, the kindergarteners were super rowdy and disobedient. I then walked to the creamery in the rain and my shoes were soaking wet all day. However, the day improved that night when I went to Amelia's philharmonic orchestra concert, which was great. On Friday, my ward did a speed dating activity. They are trying really hard to get us married off. It was really fun though, actually, since the boys actually showed up! On Saturday, I took Amelia to get her hair cut and did a lot of homework. That night, we decided to go see Catching Fire, the new Hunger Games movie, since everyone had been talking about it and said it was amazing. We thought it was really good and incredibly well done, but it was also very depresssing. Church was great today, and one of the guys in my ward played the most amazing musical number! He played a beautiful arrangement of "If You Could Hie to Kolob" on the piano, and I was thoroughly impressed with his skills (and maybe slightly jealous...)

On Tuesday morning, I go to Biology at 9 and then leave for the Salt Lake airport as soon as it's over! I am so excited to go to West Virginia for Thanksgiving! I promise that next week's post will be much more exciting than this one :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Fun week!

It's been a good week, though busy of course. On Monday, my FHE group went bowling at the Wilk (and I just realized that I should have taken my camera to that!). On Tuesday, I took my American Heritage midterm #2, which was tough but went pretty well. On Wednesday, Amelia and I awkwardly went to the Cannon center at 7 for Zumba, in sweatpants and t-shirts, only to find out that there was never any Zumba. :( Our awkward Wednesday continued with a fire in our building at 1 in the morning. We had been asleep, so we woke up to blaring alarms in the hallway and had to go outside in pajamas. I was totally disoriented, had my gross retainers in, and basically had a rat nest on my head. It was slightly embarrassing. Luckily, our building was fine and we got to go back in about 25 minutes later. Someone had been cooking in the basement and forgot about it, so there was a lot of smoke that set off the alarms.

On Thursday, I had my third Human Development test in the testing center. As I was walking back, I passed by my favorite basketball player, Eric Mika! It was a great way to start off my day. :) I also volunteered at Provo Peaks Elementary School again, and then in the afternoon, Amelia and I went to Joshua Bell's open rehearsal. If you don't know who he is (I didn't either), he is one of the best violinists in the world. Literally, I think he is the second best violinist in the world right now. It was incredible to listen to him play!

On Friday, after we ate dinner in the Cannon center and were walking back to Hinckley, I got a phone call from the guy I asked to the opera a few weeks ago, Taylor. He called to invite me to hike the Y the next morning with one of his friends and his date. Later that night, his friend's date canceled, so Amelia ended up going with the other guy (Kyme). We woke up at 6:15 because we were going to leave at 7, but the boys were late so we didn't leave until 7:30 ish. We did the whole hike while it was snowing. It was cold and my hair got completely soaked. I'm sure I did not look good, but it was way fun. After we got back, we had breakfast at the Cannon center and then watched The Croods in one of the library's media rooms. Then we ate lunch with them! So the date ended up being about 7 hours long. We didn't get a whole lot of homework done yesterday, but we had a great time and were happy to finally go on another date. :)

Here is Amelia, Taylor (my date) and I at the beginning of the hike:
 And us at the end of the hike:
And here's all four of us at the Y! We survived!
Here's a picture of the snowy mountain that I hiked yesterday.
 And this one just because it looks beautiful covered in snow!

Amelia and I also went to the men's basketball games on Friday and Saturday night, which were so fun! We won both of them and had a really enjoyable time, especially because we are 100% boy-crazy (and crazy in general) and the team happens to be very attractive. I didn't take any pictures at those since I have at every other game.

It's been a really great week! I only have 3 weeks of instruction left before finals, and I only have one more art class, since we take our final early, on December 6. The semester has been flying by! I'm really excited to go to West Virginia for Thanksgiving. :) I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Another update

Hi wonderful family!

Even though this week hasn't been anything out of the ordinary (as usual), I will write a short update. One of the highlights of my week was the release of One Direction's new music video for "Story of My Life." Poor Amelia has had to put up with me watching that video a lot. :)

On Sunday, we went tunnel singing with some boys! Tunnel singing is where a bunch of people meet in the tunnel by the Marriott Center and sing hymns. It's always a really great experience.

Also this week, there have been several different activities for "Helaman's Got Spirit" week. On Wednesday, we went to a yoga night at the Cannon Center, on Thursday they had an indexing arcade that we went to, and on Friday they had a movie night, showing The Best Two Years. There was also a basketball game on Friday night at 7, so we went to that before the movie night. Unfortunately, the only picture I took this week was of me and Amelia at the game (we went with a huge group of girls and I thought it would be too difficult to get a picture of all 9 of us):
So...since there are not nearly enough pictures in this post, I will include a picture of my new favorite basketball player, Eric Mika. ;) He's a freshman and is very handsome.
                                                      Eric Mika
Last night, me, Amelia, Camille, and Lauren watched Miss Congeniality together and it was so fun! It was a nice break from homework, and I always love watching chick flicks with other girls. There is nothing more fun than that. :)

Other than that, I've been busy with homework this week, and I also had two tests to study for, in Book of Mormon and Biology. I have two more tests coming up this week, in Human Development and American Heritage. However, once those are over I won't have any more tests until finals! There are only two full weeks of school before Thanksgiving break, and I am so excited. I hope everyone has a great week!

Sunday, November 3, 2013

I'm running out of titles for these posts...awkward!

This week has been great! On Monday night, our ward got together as a whole group for Family Home Evening and we all carpooled to get to Lowe's Extreme Air Sports. It's basically a gigantic room filled with trampolines, trapezes, rock walls, basketball hoops, and foam pits. We spent an hour and a half there and it was super fun! I went on a high trapeze from which I fell into a foam pit, which was awesome.

Here I am with two of my friends, Amber and Meredith (you can see the pits full of foam cubes in the background):
That night at midnight, Amelia and I registered for our classes for winter semester. It turned out really well, as I got into all of the classes I wanted and was happy with my schedule. However, I later looked up my Spanish teacher (once the name was posted) and found that she didn't get very good reviews. So I am currently in the process of switching to a new professor. But other than that, registration went quite smoothly! The classes I am signed up for are Writing 150, Physical Science 100, World Civilization to 1500, Spanish 321, Elementary Skills and Activities, and Book of Mormon.

The rest of the week was pretty much just my normal schedule, nothing too exciting. On Thursday, we were given special visiting hours for Halloween, so that boys could trick-or-treat in the girls' halls and vice versa. I went with some friends to trick-or-treat, dressed as Mary had a little lamb.


On Friday night, they had Despicable Me 2 at the Varsity Theater in the Wilkinson Center for $1, so Amelia and I went to the 9:00 pm showing. It is an absolutely adorable movie!

On Saturday, we slept in, ate breakfast/lunch, and then went to the Provo Towne Center mall. I've noticed lots of cute styles here at BYU, and I've been wanting to buy a maxi skirt, ankle boots, a scarf, and some new jeans, since the Cannon Center is definitely making me gain weight and I have some trouble getting my jeans on in the morning. Anyway, it was a very successful shopping trip and I found everything I wanted! That night, we went to the basketball game at 7 with two other girls, Hannah and Jess. I was really bummed because we were on the end of a row in the student section and I was really hoping to take a picture with Cosmo, but he didn't come up to where we were. Maybe next time! :)

I know this picture is kind of horrible and at a weird angle, but here we are at the game (me, Amelia, Hannah, and Jess):
This morning, I went to church and hall meeting, and tonight there's a fireside and ward prayer! It should be a good afternoon. I love you all! :)

Sunday, October 27, 2013

8th week of school!

This week has flown by. I don't know why, but all of my classes seem really hectic right now and I don't have a lot of free time. When I do have free time, I love to practice the piano music from Pride & Prejudice. Despite the craziness, it has been a really good week. On Sunday night, Amelia and I talked to some nice boys at ward prayer for two hours! On Monday, our ward put on a talent show that was amazing.

On Friday, I went on a date! Amelia is in the philharmonic orchestra, which performed in the German opera Die Fledermaus on campus this week. Because she's in the orchestra, she gets two free tickets to one of the showings, and she offered them to me as long as I promised to ask a boy to go with me. So I asked one of the guys we had talked to on Sunday, and we had a great time! Afterwards, we went with one of his friends to get Italian sodas and play games.

On Saturday, Amelia and I went Halloween costume shopping at D.I., which was somewhat successful. I also did my visiting teaching (it's so weird to say that!) and then we went to see a Cougar basketball game at 7 pm with three other girls. We won the game by almost 40 points and it was way fun!

Camille, Amelia, me, and Hannah. Sadly, Lauren, the other girl who went with us, got cut out of the picture :(
After the game, we went to the Halloween dance at the Cannon center and had a blast! There were a lot of people there and the music was actually pretty good, so we enjoyed it.

Today, we went to church, had a hall meeting where we learned self-defense, and then Amelia and I made Halloween "gingerbread" (graham cracker) houses. Her mom sent her a care package with all of the supplies, since it is one of their family traditions.
Overall, it's been a great week! I love BYU, but I miss my wonderful family. I hope you're all doing wonderfully and know that I love you :)

Monday, October 21, 2013

Another week as a Cougar

This week has been way busy with schoolwork, so unfortunately, I did not take very many pictures. Although nothing too exciting happened because I was doing homework and studying constantly, here are a few things that are actually worth noting (kind of).

On Monday, my Family Home Evening group played white board Pictionary, which was fun.

On Thursday, I went and volunteered in a kindergarten classroom at Provo Peaks Elementary School, which is something I do everything Thursday morning from 10:30 to 11:50. During that time, their teacher divides them into four groups and they go around to stations, so I am in charge of one specific station with about 5 or 6 kids at a time. It is really fun and the kids are so cute! This week, one little boy said I looked "really really really really really really pretty" and it totally made my day. Amelia and I have decided that the boys at BYU need to take lessons from my kindergarten boys! :)

This week, I took a test in Human Development and got a 96% on it, which made me happy! It's kind of stressful to know that I have to get at least a 3.6 GPA to keep my scholarship, so any time I do well on a test or paper, I feel relieved.

Since I didn't take any pictures of the things I did this week, I decided to take some pictures of the gorgeous campus I live on. :)

The trees are turning colors and are absolutely gorgeous!


These are examples of the beautiful view I get to see every morning when I wake up and go to breakfast:
 





And finally, here is my dorm room for those of you who haven't seen it yet!

Other than that, this week has been pretty uneventful so there's not much to report on. I promise I'll try to take more pictures and do more exciting things this week. I also promise that I will post a picture of me and Amelia soon. :) I love you all!

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Freshman year at BYU!

I decided to start this blog since I am on my own now and starting my life as a college student at BYU! It will motivate me to take more pictures of the things I do and will help you guys know what I'm up to. :)

I have successfully completed 6 weeks of my freshman year! This week, I took three midterms and turned in a 7-page paper. I think they all went fairly well, and I'm glad they're over with. I've gone to a few football games and have done some fun things with the girls in my hallway, like spa nights, movie nights, and other stuff. I love living in the dorms and eating at the Cannon Center. It's been way fun, and I'm really close to my roommate, Amelia (I'll take some pictures of the two of us for my next post).

This past Tuesday, I hiked the Y for the first time! It was homecoming week, so we hiked up and helped light the Y. I went with a few girls from my ward, and we had a great time.

From right to left: Lauren, me, Kira, and Camille
 Lauren, Kira, me, Lindsey, Camille, and Suzanna
 I don't feel like naming everyone in this picture :)
 Lauren, Jamie, Kristal, Camille, Hannah and me
On Friday, Mom, Dad, and Josh arrived from Laramie! They got in late Friday night, and I went to stay at the hotel with them for the weekend. Kip and Evelyn also happened to be in town this weekend, so we spent some time with them. On Saturday, Kip had some work conferences, so he dropped Evie off to spend a few hours with us. We went swimming and then met up with Kip at a park. Afterwards, we had a great meal at Olive Garden. Then we said goodbye to Kip and Evie and went to the BYU campus so I could show Dad, Mom, and Josh where I have classes. We also bought some candy at the bookstore. :) Around 3:30 pm, we left to go to the Cougar football game versus Georgia Tech. We had a great time there, especially because BYU won! Go Cougs!

After the game, we went to Baskin Robbins. This morning, we got up and went to my YSA 8th stake conference, held at the Smith Fieldhouse. It was a great meeting! Then we all went to eat at the Cannon Center together, so Mom, Dad, and Josh could have a glimpse of my daily life. They have really wonderful food, and I feel spoiled eating there for every meal! Unfortunately, after we ate, they had to return to Laramie. It was really hard for me to say goodbye to them, because having them visit reminded how much I miss them and love spending time with them. We have the best family in the whole world, and even though I am SO happy I chose to come to BYU, I still really miss seeing them every day. I'll get to see them again in 6 weeks for Thanksgiving, and I can't wait!

Overall, I'm having an incredible time here at BYU. I love my classes, my ward, my dorm, all the people I've met, the food, and the beautiful scenery. It's an amazing place and I feel so blessed to be here. :)