Heavenly.

I think I'm in love.

For reals.

With choir, with music, and most especially, with this song.

In Remembrance. Arr by Jeffrey Ames

Listen, Listen, Listen.

At the front of our music is a note from the Composer of the piece, Jeffrey Ames.

"In Remembrance is in response to the tragic accident that took the lives of Dr. William(Bill) Potts, Becca his daughter, and Anna his youngest daughter on July 4, 2002. Bill was a choral parent and Becca was one of my students during my tenure as Director of Choral Activities at Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, Florida. This piece is written in their memory and dedicated to the surviving members of the immediate family: Jayne, wife and mother; Elisabeth, eldest daughter and sister; Jason, Elisabeth's husband, and Will, only son and brother.

This text also suits the events that have recently occurred in our world. I believe In Remembrance carries a message of healing, peace, and hope applicable to many situations and personal circumstances. This piece reflects my sadness, for I know I will never see the smiling faces of Bill, Becca, and Anna Potts again on this earth. However, this piece also reflects my joy, for I know they are at rest and I will one day see them again in Heaven."

Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord

That they may rest from their labor.

Revelation 14:13

Mermaid Curls.

This morning I woke up and thought, I want to curl my hair today!

so I did.

And then I was sitting in math and the girl who sits next to me turned to me and said,

"Oh my gosh, you're hair is so beautiful. You have mermaid hair!"

Mermaid hair?

I've always wanted to look like a mermaid!

Ok, not really. But Ariel's hair is SO pretty, so I took that as a compliment.

And have now decided to call this hairstyle my "mermaid curls"

Thank you kind math girl, I'm flattered. :)

an update of some sorts..

I have been taking what you could call a "blogging fast" for the past couple of weeks.

Ok, false.

That's a lie, I have just been very busy, or lazy... whichever one makes for a better excuse.

busy?

yeah, that's it. I've been busy. :)

Nothing too exciting has happened lately, just the regular ol' college stuff. Homework, quizzes, tests, projects, group presentations, etc...etc...

You know that scene in Tangled when Flynn says, "All the things we've seen and its only 8 0'clock in the morning!" well, I feel like that explains these last few weeks perfectly. "All the things I've done and it's only 3 weeks into the semester!" Anyways...

Oh! I'm pretty sure I haven't mentioned that I am roommates with my cousin Jamie. so...guess what?! Jamie and I are roommates! We've had some crazy times and some have been documented.

(These were taken at like...2 in the morning :P)

These are only 5 of the about 300 pictures we've taken, and all of them are pretty ridiculous. But that's ok, we've had tons of fun. :)

well I have to read 100 some odd pages in 1984 by Friday so..maybe I should get off the computer. Ok, bye. :)

Those darn dementors.

Right now I need some chocolate. loads of it.

I'm just really stressed about a lot of things

and those "dementors" are making things worse.

Anyone have some chocolate frogs?

bored. Friday night. nuff said.

Sometimes, I don't have anything to do on a friday night. So I look up pointless information like...what was the number one song on the day I was born? wanna know what it was? It's a good one. :)

January 27, 1993: "I will always love you" by Whitney Houston

Then I thought, hmmm...what was the #1 song on my 12th birthday? and guess what? ..another love song.

January 27th, 2005: "Let Me Love You" by Mario

So I got curious. and looked at my birthday for every year I'd been alive. No life? yep. aaaaand...you'll never guess. yup! more love songs!

January 27th, 1994: All for Love-Brian Adams, Rod Stewart, Sting

1995: creep-TLC

1996: One Sweet Day-Mariah Carey with Boyz II Men

1997: Un-break my Heart-Toni Braxton

1998: Truly, Madly, Deeply-Savage Garden

1999: Baby One More Time-Brittany Spears

2000: I knew I loved You-Savage Garden

2001: Independent Woman-Destiny's Child

2002: U Got it Bad-Usher

2003: a song by Puff Daddy.

2004: Hey Ya-Outkast

2005: see above. :)

2006: Grillz-Nelly

2007: Irreplaceable-Beyonce

2008: Low-Flo Rida

2009: Just Dance-Lady Gaga

2010: Tik Tok-Kesha

2011: Grenade-Bruno Mars

sooo.....not all of them were great songs, but some of them were. And I just wasted a half hour of my life. And now I'm going to bed. Goodnight. :)

Here we go again...

Change.

Life's full of it.

No, not the kind that jingles in our pocket..

At this very moment I am sitting in the living room with all my roommates for our last night together. :( Ashland is leaving in 3 and a half hours to catch her shuttle, Rebecca leaves tomorrow(Thursday) at noon, And Alexsa and I are leaving Saturday morning. It seems like we just got here! and now everything is changing again.

...I used to think that graduating from high school and moving out of the house would be the biggest change in my life, and after that all the changes would be easier.

Boy, was I wrong!

With each passing day comes the realization of how naive I was. Life is changing constantly. 3 months ago I moved out of the house to a different state, moved in with strangers, went to church with all new people, started college, and became in charge of myself. Basically my entire life changed. And in just a few short weeks the process will start all over again. and after that, another thing will change, then another, and another, and another, and another.

Change.

Its never ending.

And sometimes I just wish everything could stay the same.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

"Everywhere you go!"

These were my thoughts as I walked down to take my child development final at 7:30 this morning. Yes, It is finally starting to snow!

Hallelujah!

I was all bundled up in my winter clothes, and although the snow was coming down fast and hard, I enjoyed every second of that 15 minute walk. When I reached the door to the Clarke building I caught a glimpse of myself in the glass and couldn't help but laugh, I looked like a snowman! completely covered in white. I walked in, ACED my final, and walked out to find...even more snow!!

The walk home wasn't AS wonderful because the snow was now coming down fast and hard towards my face instead of my back, but it was so beautiful I didn't care THAT much..

but it was a nice relief to walk into my toasty warm apartment. :)

The Christmas lights are on, the snow is falling outside, and I'm drinking a delicious mug of candy cane hot cocoa. My "Classical Christmas" music station is playing softly in the background as I study for my last two finals. In just three short days I will be home with my family.

Yes, It is beginning to feel A LOT like Christmas too. :)

Friday Nights in Rexburg

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Happiness J

Flo.

Hello everyone, meet Flo....our toilet.

She is sick. and throws up, almost everyday.

seriously. we've had to clean up after her multiple times, and I'm tired of it.

Maybe maintenance should fix this problem? because obviously something is wrong with the plumbing in our building.

ugh.

No Shave November?!

What is No Shave November you might ask?

According to Urban Dictionary No Shave November is:

"A celebration for males & females that startes November 1st and ends the last day of November. This is the only time when it is acceptable to not shave, hence the name No Shave November."

"When ladies decide not to shave for the entire month of November, sometimes in response to the Men's No Shave November."

And my PERSONAL favorite:

"A college tradition that involves avoiding shaving because it's no shave November, or usually because you're just too lazy. Fortunately, every month can be made into a no shave month."

Other months:

Don't shave December
Just don't shave January
Forget shaving February
Mustn't shave March
Avoid shaving April

etc...

Gross, right? yup! it is.

Truth be told, I honestly wasn't planning on participating in this tradition...until Spencer brought it up :) I'd never gone a whole month without shaving, and I decided I really wanted to try it. I don't really remember how the conversation went..Ok, maybe I said that we should both attempt it..:) and in the end it was decided if he did it, then I would do it. Sounds like a good plan, right?

Let me outline the month for you.

First two days: This is kind of nice not having to shave! (not a big deal at all)

3rd, 4th, and 5th days: Eww..this is kind of gross.

6th day: Umm...my legs are starting to itch. really bad.

7th and 8th days: MY LEGS FRIPPIN ITCH! "can I shave, please?"

-The Next 15 Days- SOMEBODY STOP THIS RELENTLESS ITCHING!! *may or may not be going slightly crazy*

24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th days: Avoids looking at bare legs for fear of seeing my manly nastiness.

30th day: "ITS THE LAST DAY OF THE MONTH!!" ...oh wait. that means I actually have to take time to shave. :/

...yup. that about sums it up. My poor legs have been through a lot this month.

Since the other thing November is kind of famous for is Thanksgiving let me tell you a couple of the things I was thankful for this November.

1. Tights

2. Long Dresses

3. Long Socks

4. Skinny jeans that are tight enough that its almost impossible to roll them up.

5. Lotion

Now that its the end of the month Am I glad I did it? Heck yes! I proved a point. :) Will I ever do it again? Probably not. at least, not intentionally..;)

Will I be shaving at midnight tonight?

MOST DEFINITELY.

A Typical Tuesday.

I really love Tuesdays.

NOT.

Take this Tuesday for example. I slept in, woke up to realize I'd fallen asleep on the floor NEXT to my bed, had to run to class, was still a couple minutes late, and then had the hardest time staying awake in my Book of Mormon class. Came home, was starving, so I actually made lunch, but then felt sick afterwards, so I decided to take a nap.

....well, I woke up from this nap at 4:24 P.M. and realized that I had slept through devotional AND my English class.

awesome.

So to make myself feel better I made some chocolate chip cookies for dinner and ate them with some frosted mini wheat's and applesauce. (not mixed together though, don't worry..)

And then my visiting teachers came over and reminded me that although we may have lots of thorns in our lives, the roses are always bigger.

and then I decorated my apartment with Christmas decorations, and that was happy.

but now its time for Tuesday to be over.

Goodnight!

Halloween Weekend!

What do you get when you mix 3 best friends, 3 awesome roommates, a trip to the D.I., green hair dye, glitter, Halloween makeup, pizza, scary movies, late nights, frozen yogurt, a Halloween dance, pumpkin chocolate cookies, the Joker, a zombie, and 4 Jazzercise girls? The best halloween weekend EVER!

Last weekend Spencer and Felicia drove allll the way up from Ephraim to visit me up here in Rexburg. They're just the greatest aren't they? :)

anyways...they arrived friday night, and as soon as they got here I made them get right back in the car so we could drive to Walmart and get some ingredients for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (yummm...) we also stopped to rent some movies to watch, and then we went back to my apartment to make the cookies and to watch The Village. We all cuddled up under a blanket on the floor to enjoy the movie. :)

The next day was probably the best! After sleeping in a LITTLE longer than we'd planned Spencer came over to our apartment and we made yummy omelettes and bacon for breakfast and then started trying to figure out what we were gonna wear for our Halloween costumes...trust me, this was quite the dilemma. Eventually we realized we weren't going to figure anything out until we'd taken a trip to the D.I. So, we piled into the car and set off for

downtown. The D.I. is a wonderful place, really, it is. After looking around for a while Alexsa found this HOT purple jacket that worked perfectly for a Joker costume. So Spencer got a green shirt to go with it and voila! He became the Joker. :) The D.I. is also a fantastic place to find old 80's jewelry so we got some sweet earrings and then set off for the next greatest place in the world, Walmart!! I love that place :) While we were looking at makeup stuff I found the greatest pair of glasses EVER.

Aren't I just the cutest thing you've ever seen? Spencer obviously thinks so ;) hahaha. Anyways, Felicia and I got some sweaters to match the ones Alexsa and Ashland had already bought, and our costumes were ready to put together.

80's babes here we come!

We bought some pizza, and went back to the apartment to get all fancy for the dance that night. It took some time, and a whole heck of a lot of makeup, but the final result? well, I'll just let you see for yourselves. :)

Work it Ladies!

The whole gang :)

Yeah...He was kind of scary. :)

Originally we'd planned on going to the straw maze, but one step outside in the cold Rexburg weather and we knew there was NO way we would survive, so instead we went to the Twizlberry for some frozen yogurt, and then headed over to the Hart for a dance that BYU-I was putting on.

Enjoyin' some frozen yogurt.

Ready to Party!

The dance was a BLAST. We had so much fun. :)

But the night wasn't over yet! oh no...the night was still young!

Back at the apartment we started to clean off the now sweat streaked makeup, and attempt to comb through the rats nest that was our hair. In the middle of cleaning off our faces I remembered that Spencer and I hadn't taken a picture together in our costumes! well, this just wasn't acceptable so I made him take some pictures with me that turned out just lovely! He was a good sport about it. :)

We think we're cool. Its fine.

Hahaha, I don't know if the full Joker makeup or if the half gone makeup is more scary!

After we were back to normal we snuggled up on the couch to watch The Corpse Bride.

It was a wonderful night. :)

The next morning we took a walk around the Temple. What a great way to start out the Sabbath!

The sun was a little bright though....:)

Ahh..they make me happy :)

Me and Felicia. I just love her!

They came with me to Sacrament Meeting and then it was time for them to head back to Snow. Yes, there were a couple tears shed(on my part of course) and then they left.

I am SO grateful that they were able to come up, and I'm SO grateful that I have them in my life.

It was a GREAT weekend. :)

Eating Oatmeal.

Life is hard. School is hard. Friendships are hard. Being away from home is hard. Living on my own is hard. Waking up so early in the morning is hard. Missing people is hard. Responsibilities are hard.

And sometimes life becomes so overloaded and stressful that I feel like I'm going to explode. What do I do when this happens?

I eat oatmeal.

I make myself a big, HOT, double serving of strawberries and cream/apples and cinnamon oatmeal, and stir in big helpings of milk and honey. When its ready I sit down on my couch, turn on my "favorites" playlist with the volume on low, close my eyes, and let myself relax.

No distractions can get to me. I close Facebook, and turn off the t.v. My phone goes on silent, and my laptop is shut down. I turn away from the dirty dishes, and the remnants of our latest apartment disaster(the flooded toilet) and instead face the window and watch the wind blowing through the trees. I close all textbooks, music books, and notebooks, and for the moment, I forget about whats due in a few hours, the next day, or even two weeks from now.

I slowly begin to eat the oatmeal, savoring each bite. With every bite taken I contemplate life, and all its complexities. I take time to think about old memories, some that bring a smile to my face, while others bring a tear or two(..or maybe three or four). I think about life as it is now, with all its joys and frustrations. I take the time to sort through problems, and try to come up with solutions. At this point the faces of the ones who are most important to me pop into my head and I thank my Heavenly Father that I have been blessed to know so many wonderful people.

...and slowly, ever so slowly the bowl is emptied.

As I take the last few bites of my now almost cold oatmeal, my thoughts turn to the future. Whats going to happen? Am I following the path I should be? Whats going to change? And while these thoughts are frightening most of the time, for the moment, I'm not scared.

I take the last bite and realize its almost time to face reality. Its time to go back to the drudgery of everyday life. My feelings are a strange mix of melancholy, joy, and peace. I stand up to take my bowl to the sink and realize that I feel a lot better.

A quote pops into my head.

"Life is just like an old time rail journey...delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride." ~Gordon B. Hinckley

Tears of gratitude come to my eyes. Life may, at times, feel like its full of bumps and bruises, but I am so grateful for this journey I've been allowed to take.

And for the opportunity to slow down and eat a bowl of oatmeal.

A thought for your Sunday.

You know how you can be taught something for your whole life, and not fully understand it until much later?

I had one of those moments today.

In countless Sunday school classes, young women lessons, and sacrament talks, I have heard that you love those you serve. I've always believed that, and have even had opportunities too feel that love for those I've served. But it has never hit me as strong as it did today.

Two weeks ago I was called to be the Relief Society chorister in my ward. Now, this isn't a hard calling, or one that takes much time, or even one where I felt that I was really "serving" anyone. However, today, while I was standing in front of my relief society leading the music, I felt an overwhelming love for every girl in that room. I only know about half of their names, and I've only known them for a month, but the love I felt for them was so strong.

This experience taught me a really important lesson.

It doesn't matter how big or small, significant or insignificant what we're doing may seem. If your serving someone, with your whole heart, you will feel that love, and be grateful for the opportunity you had.

Remember, Nothing you do is insignificant to our Heavenly Father.

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The top 10's of College ..so far atleast :)

#10. Praying before each class, taking classes that I love, and incorporating the gospel into our lessons.

#9. Paying extra for a T.V. only to find out you get a whole bunch of news and sports channels, and when the picture and volume goes out? (which happens often) you slap it to get it to work again.

#8. Tiny apartment, Tiny Kitchen, Tiny Room.

#7. Cooking on a gas stove for the first time, and almost killing the roomies when I don't turn it on properly :P

#6. 3 words: Rexburg 15th Ward. :) biggest ward in the stake!

#5. Trying to use our dishwasher for the first time, only to realize its not hooked up to water. "is something burning???"

#4. Meeting people from ALL over the country, even from all over the world!

#3. Having the best roommates EVER! I love them :)

#2. Living off campus, at the top of the hill, across from the temple, no car, and so.. we walk, and walk, and walk, and walk, and walk some more. (you wouldn't believe how big my leg muscles are getting! ;))

and the #1. best thing? When your walking to class random boys will say hi, and tell you to have a good day. :)

I LOVE Rexburg, I LOVE BYU-I, I LOVE my roommates, and I LOVE college!!

and now, a song written for BYU-I by Kirby Heybourne:

"oh I go to the school! 'yeah!' where the teachers are cool! 'Don!' and the coeds sure look fine! 'tee hee hee' The winters are cold! 'Brrrrr' But I want you to know! 'what??' That I love you for all of my life! B-Y-U-I!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Missing Friends...

Well, Its happened. last night I said goodbye to some of my best friends, and this morning they packed up their cars and drove off to start their own adventures. I'm SO excited for them, and I'm so excited to follow in their footsteps in a couple of weeks, but its still hard to see them go. :(

Love you guys!!!!!!! "Its not goodbye, just..see you later" :)