Schoolwork, housing, and a Jazz game

This week has been pretty normal for the most part, and I've been busy with a lot of schoolwork. We had our second midterm in Spanish, which Grant and I studied a lot for. It went really well for both of us (though I did beat him on the test ;). I went to the basketball game on Thursday night with Lauren and Amelia, but I didn't take any pictures. However, the Cougars played Gonzaga (the #25 team in the nation) and won! It was a great game! We had to get there two hours early to get seats in the student section. The whole Marriott center was packed and riled up :)

On Saturday morning, I woke up at 4:20 am to get to Monticello apartments by 5 am with my friends. We decided that we want to live there, and the new tenant signings were at 9 am. It's very competitive to get into Monticello, which is why we decided to get there so early. Lots of people even camped out! I went with Amelia, Meredith, Mikayla, and Lauren. We waited in the cold for four hours until they started the signings, then finally signed our contracts by 11. Amelia, Meredith, and I are sharing an apartment with one other random girl in the fall, and Mikayla and Lauren are sharing the apartment next door, since they are staying for spring and summer also. Monticello seems like a great place to live, and we're really excited about it! It's also a relief to have that huge decision made and out of the way for a while.

When we got back from Monticello, we took a 3-hour nap, due to the fact that we had gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before. After my nap, I showered and got ready, then went to pick up Grant. We drove to Salt Lake, where we went to his older sister Monica's house and I met her and her husband, Thomas, for the first time. Grant's brother Brian and sister-in-law Aubree were also there, but I had met them before. We ate dinner together and then went to the Jazz game, which we unfortunately lost. It was a fun time even though I was really nervous :) We got back to Provo by about 10:30.

This is Aubree, Brian (Grant's brother), Thomas, Monica (Grant's sister), Grant, and me at the Jazz game:

It's been a fun week! I have a couple of midterms coming up and some papers due, so this week will be pretty busy. I hope everyone's doing well! :)

Pictures, as promised

Here are the pictures of me and Grant at Big Band Night :)

(I don't like this one as much because I didn't realize how awkward my hand looked)

Valentine's Day ♥

Sorry I'm a week behind on posting! I've been super busy because...I have a boyfriend now! (as you all already know) :) Grant and I made it official! We spend a lot of time together, and when we're not together, I'm doing homework or hanging out with other friends. Since Friday was Valentine's Day, Grant gave me a beautiful rose and some chocolates. Here it is:

Grant had been planning a surprise for Saturday, so we didn't do anything particularly special on Friday. We played some pool, had dinner together, went to a fun arcade called Nickel City, and watched a movie. At the arcade, we won tons of tickets and Grant let me pick out a prize. I got this cute bear (or is it a mouse...?):

On Saturday, Maria, Clark, Will, Rosie, and Addie came to visit me in Provo! We went swimming at the rec center and then we picked up Grant and went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. It was so nice of them to come visit and it meant the world to me :) Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures.

On Saturday night for his big surprise, Grant took me to an on-campus event called Big Band Night. It was a fancy thing where they served us dinner and then had the BYU Synthesis band perform 1940's-style music that was kind of like jazz/swing. Everyone was dressed up nice and danced to the band's live music. We had a really good time and we somehow ended up being the only ones at our table even though each one seated about 10 people! We got pretty lucky :)

Funny story: Grant and I are in the same Spanish class, and our teacher always starts class off by asking if anyone has "juicy news." On Friday, I showed her the flower Grant gave me. However, she doesn't know we're dating and I didn't tell her that it was from him, so when I showed her the rose and told her that a boy gave it to me, she said "tell him I'm very proud of him!" Grant and I were trying not to laugh, and he was tempted to say "gracias!"

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day! :)

Oh, and by the way, they did take some photos of us at Big Band Night, but they're not up on Facebook yet. Once they are, I'll post them on here!

Fourth week down

This post is going to be short and sweet! I have already finished four weeks of winter semester. This week, I had my first Physical Science test, which went really well! I have a couple more tests coming up during the beginning of this week, so I need to do some studying.

This week, I haven't been up to anything very out of the ordinary. I've been on a few dates with Grant, the guy from my Spanish class. On Friday, we watched a movie and on Saturday, we had an 8-hour date that consisted of pool, shakes, running in the freezing cold from Center Street to the Maeser building, a Humor U show (hence the Maeser building), piano playing, goofing around on Facebook, and watching Sherlock. It was a fun date :) Also, before my date yesterday, Amelia, Meredith, and I toured two different apartment complexes. We'll probably tour a few more during this week so we can start finalizing our options and hopefully sign a contract soon!

So, since my last post had no pictures, I figured I had to put one in this post. Grant did take a terrible picture of us on our date, and as this is the only picture I've been in all week, I guess I have to include it:

I don't know why he decided to make such a weird face, but there we are! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful week :)

Picture-less post

I realized that I was totally lame this week and did not take a single picture! So I will just briefly recap my week and call it good. This week has felt super busy, mostly because I've started to think about and look into housing for next year. They had a housing fair in the Wilk, and though it was helpful, the amount of off-campus apartments and condos is overwhelming and I'm kind of stressed out by this looming decision. I'm planning on living with Amelia and our closest friend, Meredith, but we need to do a lot more research before coming to a decision about where to live. If anyone has advice for me about what to look for in finding a place, I would really appreciate it!

Also, this week has been strange because I was asked out on dates by 5 different guys. Yes, all in one week! I had to turn two of them down, because three of them wanted to go out with me on Friday night and I had already said yes to the first one. So on Tuesday night, I had a swing dancing date with a guy from my Spanish class, on Friday night I had a bowling date with a guy in my ward, and on Saturday night I had an art museum/ice cream/Mario Kart/movie date with a different guy in my Spanish class. They were all very fun :)

Other than that, I've just been busy with my homework, housing hunts, and hanging out with friends! I hope you have all had a great week, and sorry for the briefness and boringness of this post! I love you all! ♥

Ice Skating, movies, and other fun stuff!

It's been a great week! It was my second week of classes, and they're going really well. I don't think they'll be overly stressful, which is nice. I also found that I really enjoy my Elementary Skills & Activities class! It is from 12:00-1:50 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and we spend those two hours playing elementary PE games and doing fitness stuff. It is a great workout, way fun, and we never get homework. I really enjoy it. This week we've done hula hooping, jump roping, and animal walks. My teacher always tells us to let out our inner child and not to be embarrassed!

On Friday, Amelia left for Colorado to go to her grandpa's funeral. I was worried that I would be lonely and super bored this weekend, but it has been so fun! On Friday night, I went to a Divine Comedy show at the Cannon with some friends (Divine Comedy is a funny group that does sketches, and the members of Studio C came from Divine Comedy). Afterwards, I put on pajamas and watched The Notebook in my room (because Laura was so nice to send me a package with that movie and chocolate!). While I was watching it, one of my friends (Meredith) knocked on my door and then somehow we ended up sitting in the hallway with several of our other friends (Hayley, Lauren, Camille, and Amber), talking for hours! At around midnight, we decided to finally go to bed, but I wanted to finish my movie so I stayed up until 2.

I slept in the next morning, worked on homework for most of the day, then went ice skating with my ward that evening!

 Natalie, Meredith, me and Amber:

 Meredith (she lives right across the hall from me and Amelia) and me:

 Lauren, Hannah, Lindsey, Camille, Suzanna, Jess, Natalie, Amber, and me:

After ice skating, Camille, Lauren, Meredith and I decided to go to the small Creamery by the Cannon center because they serve French toast and buttermilk syrup at 10 pm! It was delicious and only cost $2, which was a great deal. After that, we watched Monsters University together in Meredith's room.

Today, I conducted the music in sacrament meeting and ate lunch in the Cannon center with a group of girlfriends. It was really fun to talk and laugh with them! I just feel grateful that I've had so many great friends to hang out with this weekend even though Amelia is gone. It's been so fun and I love the friends I've made here! :)

Christmas Break and First Week of Winter Semester!

I have successfully finished my second first week of classes (in other words, my first week of my second semester of college). However, before that, I finished finals and then got to spend two weeks with my wonderful family for Christmas break! My finals went well and I was really happy with how my grades ended up. It was a great semester, but I was so happy to be home with my family again. It was a relaxing break and we did lots of fun things, like play Just Dance, have reading parties, play games, and just enjoy each other's company. Josh, Bob, and I also had many dance parties to "Popular Song" by Mika and Ariana Grande.

Christmas was very fun. We did our usual Christmas Eve traditions: looking at lights around town, acting out the story of Jesus' birth, playing Oink Oink and Truth or Dare, and sleeping in sleeping bags downstairs. On Christmas day, a small group of us watched the One Direction movie together after unwrapping presents. :)

Maria, Clark, Will, Rosie, and Addy came to visit us for a few days over the break and while they were visiting, we drove to Denver to see an Avalanche hockey game. It was very fun!

We also played games with them, like matching:

Here we are after breakfast on Maria's family's last day in Laramie. We made delicious crepes!

It was great to spend time with them, and we were sad to see them leave! For the rest of break, we did random things. For example, Josh, Bob, and I watched all three of the Lord of the Rings movies! They are so amazing. After the last one ended, Bob and I were emotionally overwhelmed and had to sit there for a while and process those beautifully done movies. :) Josh also went to his first dance on New Year's Eve! He danced with 22 girls and had a great time. I was also able to spend some time with friends over the break, as well as go on a date with a nice boy in Ridge View, my home ward. However, being with family was by far the highlight, as much as I love my friends. 

I came back to Provo on Sunday, January 5, after some flight delays because of crazy storms everywhere. On Monday, I went to my new classes, picked up textbooks, unpacked, did laundry, and re-settled in. The first week of classes went really well, and I think I will enjoy all of them! I've met a lot of nice people already and I'm excited for this new semester. 

On Thursday, January 9, Meredith, Amelia, and I went to the basketball game (we accidentally all wore stripes, and we thought we looked so cute!):

On Friday night, Lauren, Camille, Amelia and I went to the men's volleyball game, and on Saturday, Lauren, Camille, and I went to another basketball game! We had a great time being with friends and enjoying the athletics....ahem....not the attractive boys that play them ;) Also on Saturday, Amelia and I went to the temple to do baptisms. It was a nice way to start off the semester. Unfortunately, later that day, Amelia found out that her grandfather died, which is why she didn't come to the game with us. It's been hard for her to lose him, but she was grateful that we had gone to the temple earlier that day, as it reminded her that families are eternal and she will see him again. 

Today, I taught the Relief Society lesson with Camille (a different one than the one I went to basketball with) and it went well. We were both nervous and are relieved to be done. :) I also played the piano in sacrament meeting! There are a few new people in my ward, but it's mostly the same (except for the fact that it is missing guys who left on missions). 

I miss my family so much, but I'm excited to be back at BYU for another semester! :)