My Last blog post EVER!

Can we just give a hip hip hooray please! This is my last blog post for this class. Lets be honest, I know we all loved the blogs, but really, really. No I'm kidding, I liked the idea of the blog. It made me get out of my everyday life and thing about something different or at least get to write down my feels about something happening that day or week. It was a good move by the one and only Shayne Clarke. What a great man!

Right now I am grateful for pandora. Just like everything though, it has its pluses and minuses. What else is greater than a free, can I say that again, free website that lets you listen to music. Not only does it let you listen to music, but it explores new bands that it thinks you might be interested in. I like it personally because a lot of the time I get sick of my same old music in itunes. Basically I just think I'm sucker for music. I love it. It really just makes a person feel so good.

Right now I'm leaving campus to go find a christmas present for my roommate Rebbie. As roommates we all drew names to get presents for each other. She is a really trendy/stylish (advertising major says it all) type of person. So I think I'm going to head over to the Flower Basket on University. It is a great little boutique, the stuff is pretty expensive, but I think I can find something little and cute there that wont cost too much. Yay for presents and friends.

Christmas Traditions

Christmas is such a fun time of year. I love when my siblings come into town and we get to spend time together. Christmas is the only time of year that all but one of my siblings comes to Utah. P.s. I just found out yesterday that my sister Katie and her two kids are going to be here long enough to celebrate my birthday on January 7th. :) I am so excited! I have a big family which consists of seven girls and one boy which includes myself. This is why christmas is so much fun at our house. There are 16 grandkids who all come and love to play together. I might add that the house gets a little wild when so many kids are running around like wild animals, but its still fun. Some of the fun things we do all together are decorate gingerbread houses, go sledding/tubbing behind the four wheeler, All open pajamas on christmas eve, sing carols, and interact the nativity scene (which is hilarious might I had). Usually all the kids are apart of it and some of my brother-in-laws. My niece whitney goes crazy around the house finding everything she can to dress all the kids up to play their part. They do a pretty good job acting out parts. On christmas eve we have a tradition of making lots of appetizers and treats. Last year we made food from about 5 different ethnicities. It was so delicious. Lets just say I love food and even more I love food of different cultures. So delicious. Each year we also attend the Joseph Smith Movie at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and go to the lights after. This usually gets a little out of hand because there are so many kids now ( and lets just be honest, it is so cold. Who really wants to spend all that time outside? I think its the worst idea.) But you have to see the lights, it just apart of living in Utah. We all go and we love it. Yay for christmas. I can't wait

Physics

I am aloud to say that physics might be one of my least favorite classes I have ever been enrolled in at Brigham Young University. I think I am aloud to say that. Everyone has their own opinions all the time right. Well I am proud to say that at this point, I only have one more assignment left to do. That means I have turned in 22 so far this semester. I wonder if I could count how many hours a week I physically spent in the physics tutorial lab doing homework problems. I would guess on average lets see, 3 assignments due each week, 4-5 hours each assignment would equate to 15 hrs. It doesn't sound like very much, but when you are in there for 5 hours a time, it sure does feel like a lot of time. Those TA's probably think I am the most wild student. I never knew how to do anything ( i didn't really read the book) that could explain a lot. When I took chemistry I could read and understand the book and that is how I did everything. I didn't just give up on reading the physics book, I did. I gave it a try at the beginning of them semester and NOTHING made sense and what do you know, it still doesn't.
Let me just talk about Dr. Colton for a minute. He is probably one of the most entertaining science related professors I have ever taken a class from. As bad as I hated physics, I always wanted to go to class. This guy is the biggest nerd ever. HA I love it so much. The greatest thing about it is that he totally knows it. I love people like that. They just accept the fact that they are geniuses and lets be honest, I wish I were a nerdy genius. He laughs at everything he says, and I'm sure he practices demo's outside of class just on his own, you know just for fun or what not. My friend chris took physics 105 from Dr. Colton also and told me once that Dr. Colton told there class that on the weekends he blows stuff up with his friends. You know what I'm talking about, you have all done it. Take a little CO2 and have a little fun. :) So great. I will not miss this class! Ask me how much I am looking forward to taking Chemistry next semester........ Lets just say, not so much!

Why does it feel like Antarctica?

I'm not sure why, but every year it takes me till at least March to get used to the freezing cold weather. can I just say it out loud. I HATE WINTER. So the main question I keep asking myself is "why do I go to school in Utah?" I will never live here when I grow up, no joke. Like the East Coasters always say, "the cold goes strait to your bones!" I have a pair of pants that really helps me feel what this feels like. They are pretty cheap pants, but I never really knew why. Well I can tell you that this winter I found out why they are so bad. The first really bad experience was last weekend at the lights at Temple Square. I couldn't figure out why, but my legs were absolutely freezing. It felt like I was wearing shorts. So I just thought it was because my pants were really tight. But obviously not. Because everyday I wear them, I freeze once again. I even tested it out by wearing some different pants and when I did, my legs weren't cold. I guess thats what I get for buying cheap pants. Next time I'll consider paying more money. Anyways, back to the freezing winter. The other day my friend and I got some DDP. Kylie left her drink in my drink holder with some ice in it. So yesterday I go out to my car to find that the cup is frozen in its place. Seriously people, if things like this happen, it is just way to cold. I told my roommate today that I would never got to BYU Idaho because it is even so much colder in Idaho than Utah. Although I do have one exception, I love to snowboard. I'm not sure if this really makes any sense. Maybe its because you dress really warm and are active will you snowboard so you seem to stay warm for a longer period of time. Plus you get to drink hot chocolate and have fun with friends. Maybe I can live somewhere where it is warm, but I can drive to go skiing?? California anyone, Sounds like a nice place for grad school to me!

Thanksgiving

It was turkey day last week. Do we love turkey day YES. Even if the food isn't that great, its fun to (1) not have school and (2) hang out with family. So I began my thanksgiving break by finishing my physics test and driving strait home to meet my sisters April and Jenny, my niece and nephew and mom and dad to see New Moon. (can I just say yikes real quick) what an experience. Well you probably already know what I'm thinking about this movie. Yes, Jacob had a nice body, but is it really realistic, really. Sure it is real, but that movie is promoting nothing good for the female society. It is like porn for guys. It is a unrealistic love story that girls drool over. It's never going to happen girls, face the fact and stop screaming in the movie theatre. Okay Im done. It was fun to see it with my family anyways. The next day before we headed to midway for early thanksgiving with the cousins, my sister Jenny and I decided to make a quick stop at the Tanger Outlets in Park City. I was just doing a little christmas shopping, you know the usual. That was great and I sure found so great treasures at J-crew and Banana. We then headed up the the cousins, waited two hours to eat after we were already an hour late (typical). It's always gourmet food so I like it. I left a little early to head to Salt Lake to see Kevin. Im not sure what we did that night. Thursday my siblings that live in Utah came over for Thanksgiving dinner. (half of them live elsewhere) My sister Jenny and her family did drive in from Oklahoma though. That was great because everyone else is just the usual. They are always there. I only get to see my siblings outside of Utah once or twice a year. At christmas and Education week. Both highlights of my year. I love them all so much. Anyways, the rest of the Thanksgiving break was great. I hung out with Kevin on Friday and Saturday. Friday we went shopping and to Trio for dinner. Saturday he came up to my house and hung out. Sunday we ate pie and played games. The End. Back to school

A date in SLC

I sure bet this blog is getting boring. All I keep talking about is what I do with my life on the weekends. Probably because during the week all I do is school school school. SHOOT ME. But hey its almost over so I think I can handle that. I can handle it for two more weeks. So the weekend Kevin's friends had planned a date that we joined in on. All his friends were leaving from Provo because they all go to BYU so I figured I could just catch a ride up to Salt Lake CIty with them. Well you guessed it, I was the fifth wheel on the car ride up. Can I just tell you that i love cougars hahaha. Let me explain this to you, my friends and I always make fun of the ultimate kids that go to BYU that do the typical things "mormons" would do on dates. It is hilarious. You know the kids I'm talking about, the ones that wear cougar gear to school everyday and go bowling on cougar campus and sleep in the halls and on chairs. Love them. Well you guessed it, on the way to Salt Lake we had a bubble gum blowing contest. I almost died when they pulled out the pack of double bubble. Anyways we made it to our destination and Kevin was waiting so I was glad. We went ice skating at the Galavin Center in Salt Lake. After Kevin trying to teach me 500 tricks (he played hockey in high school) we finally left. We traveled to Matthew Skanky's House for some desert. Banana Splits thanks. So good. Oh and did I mention I absolutely love where Kevin and all of his friends grew up. They live up by the University of Utah in all those old neighbor hoods with huge tree's and cute street lamps. I want to live somewhere like that one day. I love old stuff. Especially antiques. Anyways the night ended and I'm sure the other girls though I was wild because I was really hyper, rode home with them. Slept the whole. Can I just say it was way nicer than having to drive. Ill take that any day of the week.

Imogen

Last week I attended the Regina Spektor concert which was absolutely amazing. Last night we attended the Imogen Heap concert. Once again AMAZING! I'm not sure why but I love going to concerts. They just make me feel like life has a purpose or something. Who knows why because music has nothing to do with how you succeed or how well you do in school or life. I guess its just a good place to go to forget about life. Imogen was so good. She sounded great plus through a great show. She entertained us so so well. Basically that is all she did in fact. Before every song she ha something to start it off with. Banging on some instrument or rubbing her fingers on top of wine glasses. So great. For a specific song she had had auditions the night before for someone to play the cello. So she starts introducing this girl and when she walks out on stage Kylie and I were like "what the" that girl was totally in our ward last year.... and Kylie visit taught her HAHAH it was amazing. I won't lie, we felt pretty cool. By the end of the concert we were a little worn out of concerts to be honest. We were ready to go home. We headed over to Maverik and grabbed a hot chocolate. Absolutely delicious.

I almost forgot the second best part of the night. We parked at gateway so on our walk over we decided to stop at Anthropology. Only one of the greatest stores ever. I always joke when I go inside and say, "one day, one day." The reason I attend college is to someday have a good job so that i WILL shop at this store! I love Salt Lake City. Well for Utah is is pretty alright. I would much rather live in a different city, but for Utah it will just have to do. I want to move there when I graduate and work for one year before grad school. Okay I really hope this is long enough already! Adios

Regina

I love Regina Spektor!!!! That is all I have to say..... Last night my friends and I attended her concert in Salt Lake City at In the Venue. It was absolutely amazing. First, the night began( in a large suburban to fit all 8 of us) as it took us an hour and half to get to Salt Lake city because there was crazy traffic all the way there. Only one wreck in salt lake. (who knows if that had us stopped clear back to provo) We finally reached our destination Hires Big H.... If you haven't been please go, 4th south 7th east. Such amazing fries, burgers, sandwiches, shakes, root-beer in a frozen mug! So delicious. Because of the traffic we had to eat extremely fast. As we were eating and our friend texted us and said there was only one opener and that regina was coming on. We through down our food and ran. We parked at gateway and 8 of us ran the entire way. Im sure the people at the gateway thought we were absolutely crazy according to some of the awkward stares I saw as I ran past. my roommate sarah almost died running because she has mono and the rest of us almost died because the freezing air was killing our lungs. We got there and ran in to find out we had only missed the opening song. People were over flowing everywhere. We weren't quite sure where we were going to stand to see anything. She is one of the most talented people I know. If you don't know her, most of her songs include her playing the piano and singing. Also she plays the guitar and sings. Her fingers moved like fire across the black Steinway. SHE IS AMAZING! At one point she was playing a drum stick on a wooden chair, singing, playing the piano and handling the foot pedal. I have a really big appreciation for music, it brings goodness, soul, life, into my life. It makes the world go round. Check her out! PS she has two songs in the movie 500 days of summer. If you haven't seen that, you are missing out on life! Love it

Blogging and HALLOWEEN

I have been so bad at all of this blogging business. After missing a couple of weeks I am hopping to catch up and Shayne will forgive me. He is pretty chill so lets just hope this actually happens. Yesterday was Halloween and can I just say it was great!. After weeks of pondering, we were having the most difficult time thinking of something six girls could all do. We wanted to all dress up together as something of six. Each girl came up with many different ideas. One night Kylie, Rebbie, Chris, and myself were sitting upstairs in our loft chatting. The idea came up and we loved it. We would be polygamist and chris would be our husband. It was the greatest idea and we were absolutely thrilled. Kellee, Mandi, and Rebbie are all from provo, so they went home and did a little searching through their mom's closets for some amazing dresses we could wear. Because I had lived in St. George for a year my freshman year, I knew all about these polygamist. If you ever stepped foot in the St. George Wal-Mart you are doomed to see not only one polygamist family, but many. women wearing long dresses and poofy bangs will all their hair back in french braids. It is AMAZING!. I revealed my thoughts from my previous years and we used to internet to look up some funny hair styles. Sarah did our hair. My hair was at least 5 inches off my head, amazing. Kellee carried a child around with her and Mandy was with child. Chris felt amazing and loved being the husband of six hot babe's. HAHA well that is what he kept saying all night. Everyone we ran into loved our costumes and told chris he was one lucky man. WE did many fun things and even had a couple little trick-or-treaters come to our house for candy! I love kids on hallow that are all dressed up. It is a g good holiday. HOpe you all had fun also!

Cookies

This week shayne Clark asked our class to give a "coke" to someone we didn't know. We didn't absolutely have to give a coke, but just something. He is a funny guy and of course would want us to do something to either (1) make fools out of ourselves or to (2) completely embarase ourselves. So I began to think about when I wanted to make this happen. I thought of a couple different ideas, (1) randomly giving someone something on campus (2) buying someone something they weren't expecting or (3) just do a good favor for someone in my group of friends. So after gathering all of my thoughts on the project I decided I would make some cookies and leave them on someone 's porch. After making a whole batch of Fun Fettii cookies from the cake batter ( i.e. this is the easiest kind of cookies you will ever make) and after my roommates ate half of them, I wrote a little note, slide it into the bag with the deliciously looking cookies. I dropped them off at a somewhat looking cool house and left. I know I didn't get to see anything exciting happen, but when people randomly leave us treats on our porch we love it. It is is a simple kind of act that is sincere and helps you remember that people know you are there and are thinking of you. I hope that I was able to make someone feel this same way after I left them a sweet little surprise on their porch.

The Porch

As of right now I have walked home from campus because it is absolutely FREEZING outside.... well you would never guess what I am doing now?? No big deal just sitting on my front porch still freezing! I got locked out of my house this lovely afternoon. Sometimes I guess its just a sacrifice to let my greatest roomy Kylie borrow my key while hers is stuck in North Ogden for a few days. While my hands are freezing, I am enjoying all of the cougars walking past giving me slight glances out of the corner of their eyes. I can only imagine the thoughts crossing their minds. I bet they think I am absolutely insane! I'm not even mad about it because I love cougars. My roommates and I have this little inside joke about all the marvelous cougars that LOVE LOVE LOVE cougar campus. You know the ones I'm talking about with the cougar socks, earrings, bracelets, shirts, shorts and hats. We love them. I get pure enjoyment just being on cougar campus. People watching is something I really love to do. I love how everyone is different in their own way. Just what someone wears, what they study, the music they listen to or even where they live can say so much about a person. It really gets me thinking. Yay! Mandi is here to let me in. Adios

The wedding

Tonight I dropped my roommates off at the BYU game in provo and headed up to North Ogden, which is where I am from. One of my best friends from home got married today. We aren't really as close of friends now just because we live different lives obviously. It was just really good that I could be there because she has since fallen away from the church and has become inactive. I was really glad that i could drive an hour and a half home to say hi to her for only 5 min. That is hard but i think it is really important that i went and supported her. I think it is hard for people that don't have temple marriages because all of the family members come to the wedding and then leave and the reception doesn't ever have anyone there. My mom and i stayed for a while just so it looked like there were more people there. It was also good because i was like the only one there to catch the bouquet that wasn't married already or under the age of 12. I just really hope that she enjoyed her special day and that it was fun for her. She may or may not remember that i came, but it really made me feel good and i really felt like i needed to support her. Hopefully they can be sealed together soon. The rest of this night will consist of visiting with Kylie and her family and seeing my long lost friend jen who i NEVER see anymore because her missionary just came home. Lame .... it will be fun!

A Festival in SLC

Today my good friend Kevin invited me to do help him out with a service activity that he does each month. Each month they take the kids from a bunch of different vitmineeze families to do different things. It is almost like they are "second" families for these children. It is obvious that they don't have much and they need this interactment from older adults. I could tell how much they looked up to Kevin and also myself when they had only known me for a small amount of time. We picked them up and took them to a carnival that the program hosts every year for the kids. First we played in the blow up slide where we all received a great amount of plastic burns across our bodies. second we hit the bell with a sledge hammer to see who could get it all the way up to 100 to reach the top for the bell to ring. As we enjoyed face painted and lunch, we had each won sticky hands. Now this is where the real fun began. We had wars upon wars of who could get the other with their sticky hand. As the day came to an end we were all worn out from the sun beating down on our skin all afternoon. With prizes poring out of the boys sacks, we dropped them off at home after a fun filled day. I really enjoyed being apart of this because it was a new experience for me. I have grown up in Utah my entire life so to bring apart of another world into mine really allows me to open my eyes and see what other parts of the the world may be like. This was an amazing experience and i hope to travel the world one day to learn more about the differences there are in the world.

This Year

Some say the first week of school is easy. WHO do these people think they are? The days have dragged on and on for me. 5 days down = 5 days of death = an incredible amount of my time spent in the physics lab = physically and emotionally has felt like weeks. I'm trying to imagine how I'm going to survive. WIth five+one, six amazing girls living in what some like to call "the candy shoppe" life is great. We all expected something a little different, friends over from dusk till dawn, no sleep, late night talks, lots of men, treats. This is what we imagined through all of the months as they dragged on till our move in date. We are all here now. Have our expectations been met? I love this house and think it is absolutely darling. Sleeping upstairs in a little attic is all I've ever dreamt of. Mustard yellow slanted walls, cracked wooden floors, 1960's closet's and dresser's, and some good tunes floating through the air waves. What more could I ask for. As my senior year it is going to bring some great adventures. Good times dragged away by trials is what everyone experiences. Why? My answer to everything is..... life.