Comfort Zone: Abandoned!

Hey! Time to be good at blogging again. Maybe. I need to remember that I can blog about little things and not just big events. So here I go.
Last week was really fun. My roommate, Jenessa, is in the BYU Women's Chorus, which is awesome!! Seriously, it is. I love Men's and Women's Chorus, they are beautiful. They are like the MoTab in training. So they had a concert last week and another roommate, Maggie, and I went to it to watch her sing. It was everything I expected and more. So beautiful!! The women sang some really pretty songs, and then it was the men's turn and they... blew me away. They sang some pretty songs but also some just plain awesome numbers. They are so talented and so funny. I was almost crying from laughter. Anyway, a good time was had by all and at the end I had a lot more love for my university.
So after the concert, Maggie and I had an idea to get everyone's "autographs". Of course we couldn't get everyone's, but we wanted to try and get as many as we could on our programs. So we walked out into the big open space where everyone was finding their families, and we got started. I thought it would be easy, but it was actually really hard! It pushed me way out of my comfort zone. All I had to do was go up to really nice people and ask them to sign my program, but I had a hard time for some reason. Maggie was really really good at it because she has basically no inhibitions.
Even though it was hard, it was something that turned out making me feel actually really good! Because each time I would go up to someone, the same thing would happen. They always looked really shocked/surprised at first, and then they looked really happy, and very graciously gave me their autograph. They were so flattered that someone would want their autograph after a routine concert such as this, and almost all of them said they'd never given someone their autograph before. One boy said "You guys are the best! You're just so awesome! Man, you're just seriously so great!" And all we did was ask for his autograph!
It was such a fun and fulfilling thing to do. I feel like we made people feel really good and it was so simple! (Even though the execution was a little difficult for me). It opened my eyes to the fact that you can make someone's day without even having to go to great lengths. You lose nothing and they gain so much. Why not do it? I want to try to go out of my comfort zone more to help people feel good about themselves. Every time I receive a random compliment or "hello" from a complete stranger, I am amazed at how good it makes me feel!
Here's a picture of the aftermath. Maggie totally beat me number-wise!

So. Yeah. Good times. I'm gonna try to be better at being awesome and you guys should too!! But you all are already really good at that. So what am I even saying.
I love you all! That's my post! Yep!

There's A First For Everything

What started as a normal shift at the bowling alley on Friday ended with an emergency trip to the medical clinic. Now I'm chillin in my apartment having a slow time typing with my broken finger!
Friday was super busy with tons of EFY chil'ns taking their chance to bowl. We got through the rush incident-free and all was going well. At one point, towards the end of my shift, I went to the back behind the pinsetters to fix the usual ball jam. As I was pushing the balls through the track, one of them somehow escaped and flew off. I didn't move out of the way in time and the ball landed on my finger! It smashed it onto another metal part of the machine and it hurt pretty bad but at first I figured it was just a bad smash, so I finished fixing the problem. Then I looked at my finger and kinda got a little worried because the pain wasn't going away at all and my finger was like white and flat. So I walked back down the lane, smiled to the little family that thanked me, and went straight to my boss Glenna's office to get her opinion. She immediately called the BYU EMS, who came really fast but pretty much just told me they couldn't do much to tell if it was broken so I could go to the doctor if I wanted but I didn't have to. Oh, and they did a great job of calming me down by telling me I probably had nerve damage and my finger would be numb for the rest of my life, haha.
Turns out, it's a good thing I went to the doctor because my finger is definitely broken, or "crushed" as they referred to it. Here's a picture of the x-ray. My hand looks totally normal except for the last bone of my ring finger.

Yum. Here's what it looked like in the car on the way to the doctor:

Anyway now it's in a lovely splint thing and I'm supposed to go to a hand surgeon (what?) sometime this week so he can look at it more closely and put a better splint on it or whatever needs to be done. The doctor said it would take 12 weeks to heal but I'm thinking/hoping he was giving me a really liberal estimate, because that seems forever long! Just in time for school to start.
I'm just super glad it wasn't worse. What if the ball was heavier than 13 pounds? What if it landed on my whole hand and broke it? That would suck, especially since it's my right hand. Also, Glenna is an absolute angel and stayed with me the whole time at the doctor and kept me laughing when I was having a freakout moment in her office with the EMS guys. She helped me take care of everything with the worker's comp. stuff and keeps checking up with me. She even brought me ice cream today along with another one of my co-workers! Also, shout-out to Devrey and Chandler who brought me pumpkin chocolate chip bread -- my absolute favorite! And to Dustin and Amy who fed me dinner and watched Saved By The Bell with me on Friday night. I've felt very loved and taken care of this weekend! It's not the most fun thing ever but at least it makes life interesting! I was getting a little bored... ;)

Memorial Day and He Is We Concert

My Memorial Day weekend was awesome! Devrey and Chandler invited me to come with them down to Lake Powell for the weekend. So we packed up our swimmin' suits and sunscreen and headed out Friday after work. I was so excited for three whole days of relaxation! We got to Blanding, Utah late Friday night and stayed with a family that Chandler stayed with on his mission and worked for after his mission. They are an awesome family and live on a huge farm. Saturday we woke up and sadly, the weather was terrible! It was so dang windy outside, and red dust was blowing everywhere. Windy Blanding reminded me of windy Shelley, just with different colored dirt ;) So we weren't able to go to the lake at all. So instead we all went to breakfast and chatted with the Lyman family. Then we drove around the hills a little bit. After that the three of us visited an awesome sister that Chandler also stayed with on his mission. Then we went home, took naps, made dinner, built a fire, and roasted s'mores! It was a fun day, even if we didn't even lay eyes on Lake Powell :)
Sunday we went to church, and then the rest of the day we spent exploring some beautiful areas in southern Utah. It was a blast Here are some pictures!

Oh just some Indian ruins

Hyoooge canyon!

This crazy diving board rock! Probably the scariest thing I did all day...

"Yep, they're twins..." -Chandler

Natural Bridges

Another natural bridge

Trying my hand at nature photography. Haha...

A rock formation in Valley of the Gods called "Lady in a Bathtub" or something like that. It seriously looks like a lady in a bathtub! The funny thing is, we didn't even know what it was called when we saw it. So we all took guesses as to what we thought it looked like. And we all decided it looked like a lady in a bathtub. And then later we found out the name!

I just poked my head out the window and took this picture, but I love the way it turned out!

So the trip on Sunday was beautiful. It's hard to take pictures that represent how cool it is, but believe me, it was so cool!

Monday we all got up early to help Bro. Lyman round up his cows. Sadly I was feeling super sick so I had to stay home :( But they all got home and said I missed out! Here are a few pictures.

Devrey lookin' supa-fly on the four-wheeler

They had to carry some of the calves because they wouldn't move their little bums along.

After that we packed up, visited one more person, and then hit the road! It was such a fun and relaxing trip. I'm glad they invited me! It always sucks to go back to real life after these things.

Then last night, Devrey and I went to Salt Lake to go to the He Is We concert that we've been planning on for like two months! We met up with Shanley and three of her friends. It was really fun, but kindof sad because the main girl wasn't even there, because she is sick. It was this fill-in girl instead. She did a super good job, but I was still sad! Here's Devrey and I waiting for them to come on.

Good times! Well that's it for now. Next week I'm going to a Daughtry concert. Wooooo summer!!

Newness: Some Ups and Downs

Hey! Look! I'm posting again! Ready... GO!


Ok so I'm just going to jump right in before I get distracted again. This summer has been great so far!! I moved out of my apartment in Sparks, but I'll be moving back in the fall. So for the summer I'm living here in Cinnamon Tree (yeah, I'm not sure what a cinnamon tree is either) and I'm living with Jayde, Miriam, and Katelyn. It's been so great to live with three of my very best friends! Here's a picture of us on one of the first Sundays, sadly before Jayde had moved in. We all think it's kind of an awkward picture, but oh well ;)

We also have two other roommates, but they both got engaged within the last month, so we never see them. Haha. But yeah it's been great. We laugh way too much.


I'm still working at the bowling alley, and it's been a blast as usual. I also got a second job for the summer, at a call center. I'm not taking classes so I wanted something to fill up the rest of the hours and to save some monay! Well, the extra paychecks have been great, but it is definitely not something I want to spend the rest of my summer doing. Every day this is what I do. Go to the bowling alley at 8:30. Flirt with provide excellent customer service to the morning bowling classes. Go upstairs with Glenna to buy our daily brownie. Peace out at 1:30.
Go home, sit in my apartment by myself until 4:00, then I head to work at the call center. Hate my life and get sworn at until 8:00. Then I go home and partay with my homies. Then I go to sleep and wake up and do the exact same thing the next day.
But it's a good life. And it'll be an even better life since yesterday I put in my 2-weeks notice at the call center :) Like I said, it's been good, but not worth it.


That's about it so far. I'm having a really good summer. I love my ward, I love my friends, I love summer in Provo. Stay tuned for Memorial Day pictures and concert happiness :)

You Gotta Put Your Behind in the Past

Good old Lion King! Haha anyway, just time for another random post :)

So let's just say, I'm super happy that it's finally the month of March. February has always been my least favorite month of the whole year, and this year was no exception! I hate to sound depressing, but it's always just so blah. It's still cold, you aren't allowed to think about Spring yet because it's too far away, you're burnt out with school by then, and nothing exciting happens! And then this Feb. I had to go and get sick for four weeks, along with other things that made the month not so great.

BUT, now that's all in the past and it's March! It's sunny! The weather is amazing and people are smiling and the end of the semester is in sight! There are lots of exciting things coming up, such as the Festival of Colors (which became my new favorite Spring thing a year ago), as well as Luke's blessing (not baptism), which means seeing all you awesome familial peeps. Also Devrey, Amy, and Matt's graduations! Which means more family time and a road trip to the blessed land of Arizona.

I'm really excited for this summer to live with three of my best friends here in P-Town, soak up the sun, and work hard to save some dinero! And then in the Fall my best friends start getting back from missions! I. Can't. Wait.

Anyway, I'm getting way ahead of myself and this post contains way too many exclamation marks, but I'm just really excited for the months ahead and to put the not so great months behind me :)

Nephews and Birthdays and Snow!

Whew, I can't believe I'm 20! No longer a teenager... this is going to take some getting used to. But I haven't really felt like a teenager since starting college so I guess not a whole lot is going to change haha. Anyway my birthday/weekend turned out to be pretty great!
Friday:
Woke up at the crack of dawn for class, and got all the schooly stuff out of the way. Then, before I had to go to work, John and I worked on our bowling skills for a couple of hours. I hate to brag but we're getting pretty good! Relatively... Then I went to work where my coworkers put on the Happy Birthday CD and embarrassed me in all sorts of ways. I had a few good friends come to visit me at work too, which was so fun! Then right after work, John and I headed over to the hospital to say hello to Dustin and Amy and little LUKE! What a cute baby he is :) Congrats, you two!!! After the hospital I ran home to complete my cleaning check, which has fallen on my birthday two years in a row now! I only had about 20 minutes to do it all, so of course I failed, hahaha. Then we headed to Texas Roadhouse for a birthday dinner of sorts. We doubled with John's sister Emily, and her date, Brandon. The place was crooowwdddeeddd, but the food was definitely worth it! After that we packed up and headed to Bountiful where the Steagall family had a little birthday cake and whatnot for me. It turned out to be a pretty great day!
Saturday:
I went with three of John's sisters and one of their friends who is engaged, to the bridal show in Salt Lake. They are obsessed with this thing and they told me I HAD to go. The trip was mostly for their engaged friend, but it was fun to look at all the crazy fancy stuff and to eat all the yummy food! It was interesting for sure but very cool. After that we went back to the house. John, Emily, and I had planned to head back to Provo later that evening. However, the weather had different plans. It started snowing hard and fast, and in no time there were inches of snow on the ground and terrible roads. After driving around in it a little, we decided it would be best if we just stayed in Bountiful for the night. Since we had the rest of the day to do anything we wanted, we decided to make the most of it and play in the snow! Four of us rounded up some snow clothes and spent the rest of the evening sledding and building forts. I so wish we would've taken pictures, but one of our forts was pretty dang awesome. It took us forever and by the time we were finished, we could've slept overnight in the thing. The rest of the night we just sat around and recuperated from our "long" day.
Sunday:
Woke up, ate breakfast, went to church! After church and dinner and everything, we definitely didn't want to drive back to Provo and face real life for another week. But alas we finally left. On the way back, we stopped at Devrey and Chandler's place to say hi to them and Mom and Dad! It was so good to see them and to visit for a little while! Then we finally got back to Provo and hung out with my favorite roommates for the rest of the night. Good times!
All in all it was a pretty great weekend. I loved seeing my new nephew and Mom and Pops. And thank you to everyone else for the birthday wishes!! :)

Fun Weekend!

So this weekend turned out to be pretty packed with awesomeness. It was one of those weekends where I never once found myself sitting there thinking "I'm so bored, why is it the weekend and I have nothing to do??"
Since I don't have class on Fridays, my weekends usually start on Thursday. So Thursday night me and my roommates and a couple friends went to Denny's to celebrate my roommate Jane's birthday. Denny's at 1 a.m. never fails to be a good time.
Friday night Jayde and I went to Salt Lake to visit a friend of ours from Shelley. We met up with some of her friends and we all hung out and had a really good time. First we went to a pizza place in Salt Lake called The Pie. It was SO good. It was literally underground and extremely tasty.

Jayde, Jessica, and Me at The Pie

Huge pizza!!

After that we went bowling. I didn't win, but I didn't lose, so that to me is a success. :)

The group minus Jayde. I just met those people but they were decently cool.

After bowling the plan was to go look at the lights at Temple Square. But... were too late and it was closed. I was super bummed but that just means I have reason to go still! So instead we went up to Ensign Peak for a few minutes.

Jayde and I at Ensign Peak
(She's not that tall. She's cheating!)

After Ensign Peak we just drove around a little. We walked around the capitol building which was pretty beautiful. Eventually we headed home, it was a pretty fun night.
Saturday afternoon Tim Keesler picked me up and we met Kevin & Tiffany and Dustin & Amy for lunch at this amazing Spanish restaurant in Springville. Kevin recommended it - props to him because it was AMAZING. After that I went with Tiffany and Amy to help them get started on the cake they made for Amy's school project. Unfortunately I couldn't stay with them to help with the rest of it because I had to get home.
I had to get home because I had a date with one of my good friends to my favorite thing of all time: Divine Comedy!! It's a sketch comedy group at BYU that has shows every month or so. The shows always get sold out SUPER fast... like within a couple hours. So I was really excited to be able to go. Of course the show was hilarious and it was a really good date with roommates and friends. After that we hung out for a little while longer and then I made-like-a-baby-and-headed-out to West Jordan to spend the night at Devrey's.
Since Chandler was out of town, Devrey asked me to help her in the nursery on Sunday. It was really fun... the kids were insanely cute. Nothing like the 2nd Ward nursery though; there were only about 6 kids! But it was really fun and good to hang out with Devrey!
Sunday night my roommates and I had roommate pictures taken with the help of a photographer friend. I thought they turned out pretty good, even if the only place we could think to take them was inside the apartment because it was so dang cold outside!

The 6 of us

Jayde and I and The Christmas Blanket

Mustache'd!

I'm Telling You, They Glow.

When I eventually leave Provo, this will definitely be what I will miss the most.

Just Pluggin' Along!

Hey guys! Nothing really eventful to speak of. Just staying super busy with school and wedding plans! I was able to make it up to Spud Day a couple weeks ago. Tons of fun like always!! This time I brought three of my friends. They all loved it! They were super jealous of my hometown. Who knew Shelley Idaho could be so envied? I'm not used to people thinking Idaho is cool, so it was funny haha. Good times.
I also went home last weekend for Dev's bridal shower and because she went through the temple. I didn't attend that part, obviously, but it was fun to be with everyone. And the bridal shower turned out awesome! Me, Dustin and Amy, and Devrey and Chandler all rode there and back together, so it was a good time! Definitely better than driving by myself.
This weekend is Devrey's "Utah" bridal shower that we're having at her new apartment. I'm still finishing up the plans for that...hehe. But it'll turn out good I hope.
Other than that I've just been studying away. Gotta love school. Actually I do love it. Sometimes I wish I could stay in school forever. Is that weird?

And Now It's Done

Can I just say how AMAZING this summer was?...
Yesterday was my last day as a Conference Assistant at Heritage Halls. I couldn't have asked for a better job, better coworkers, better bosses, or an all-around better place to be. Because of the nature of how our schedules worked and the fact that we all lived IN Heritage, it was a lifestyle much more than it was just a job. The other CAs and I were basically brothers and sisters within a month. I've probably said that a lot, but it's true! We could finish eachother's sentences like no other and we even fought a lot of days, but it was never a big issue.
I learned so much from this job because the things we did for work varied so much each day. I could go from plunging toilets one day to shopping for supplies at Walmart the next day to working the front desk in a dress the next day. I also met a lot of interesting people, because we would check in thousands of people each week.
But all good things must come to an end, and now it has come. We really had to push ourselves this last week and we couldn't slow down just because it was the end. This week was Education Week at BYU, which is the biggest conference of the whole summer. This time instead of teenagers, it was everyone from age 14 to 99. There were lots of grumpy old men and needy middle-aged women, but there were also just as many or more REALLY nice and sweet people. One night I brought some extra toilet paper to a family that had run out, and the old dad was ready at the door with some Fruity Pebbles rice crispies. They tasted weird, haha but that didn't make the gesture any less appreciated. Lots of little things like that happened all summer and it made the hard parts worth it!!
This week was also super crazy because along with keeping the Ed Week participants happy, we were preparing for the Fall students to start checking in on Saturday. There was a lot of organizing to do and lots of little things to do to convert all the buildings from guest housing to student dorms. Basically everyone was going crazy, but we got through it. Along with that there was/is still quite a bit of last-minute touches to be done on the two new buildings. On Friday we FINALLY got to see inside of them. They are so nice! Friday we just ran around like chickens with our heads cut off to finish things so that they could be ready for students in the morning. We had to distribute random things like mattress pads, shower curtains, brooms, ironing boards, and other things into the hundreds of rooms. It was crazy! By the end we were all super sweaty and exhausted, but it was exciting and fun too.
Yesterday we did our last check-out routine of the summer and we also did a lot of preparing keys for the new students. It was a long day and also a sad one. After we finally got off, we all just kindof stood there not knowing what to do. All of us had moved out of our apartments the night before, so we couldn't just go home like usual. We all said our goodbyes and just went our separate ways to our new apartments. Lots of us were glad to be done with the job but not to be done being coworkers. It was like graduation all over again! Haha.
So anyway now here I am sitting in my new apartment at good old Sparks II! I've met 3 of my 4 new roommates, not counting Jayde. It's pretty weird. I don't remember things being this awkward when I lived at Wyview hahaha. But I'm sure it won't last long. Jayde won't be here until Friday so I'm on my own til then. But tonight I'll probably end up hanging out with my CA friends. Some people just can't let go...;)

Summer in P-Town

Hellooooo! I am so bad at this blogging business. I am sorry. Would it help if I told you I lived the same day over and over again so it's not like you're missing anything exciting anyway? It's like Groundhog Day all up in here, I swear.
It's all good though! I'm still having a good time. I'm finally getting to the point where I'm very ready for this job to be over and to start school back up haha. But I know I need to enjoy it while I still can. We only have 3 more weeks of camps and then one week of preparing the two new building that have just been constructed and getting them ready for students in the Fall. And then it'll be time to move out and get into Fall mode! This week one of the camps that is coming is an Adult Ballroom camp. According to my managers, adult ballroom means homosexuals. Staying in Heritage with their partners. Hahaha it should be an interesting week....
I'm trying to think of other things that stand out. Oh! Last weekend Larry King came to Heritage. No joke. His grandson was attending one of the sports camps. It was so awesome! He was really nice and he is a really small guy in real life.
Also about a week and a half ago a bunch of us went to the Harry Potter premiere. All but one of us from Heritage went and then 2 of our counterparts from Helaman came. It was really fun just because there were so many of us who went together. Also the movie was awesome!! I definitely went and saw it again the next day. Here are dos picturos:

Me super excited in my nerdshirt.

All of us!

Pranks and Dates

The summer so far has been weird but good. Weird because I'm still trying to get into the swing of things. But it's getting better! Work is going really good. Up til now my 8 coworkers and me have been doing work that requires us to be together practically all day, every day. Luckily they're all pretty cool and we've all become good friends.
Such good friends, in fact, that apparently it's not too soon to be performing pranks on each other. Since we all have keys to ALL of Heritage Halls, pretty much no one is safe. A few nights ago the 4 of us girls were all hanging out together in one apartment. The 5 boys knew this so they knew that there were 3 unoccupied apartments to perform their little stunts on. I came home to find all 5 mattresses missing out of my apartment. I had no idea where they were so I checked the lobby and found a little surprise:



It was pretty funny, but I'm a little worried for what they'll think of next!
Then a couple of nights ago Devrey came down to visit me and we had a nice little "date":) We went shopping, watched a movie, AAND went to Benton Paul!! I feel like I mention him a lot in my blog. Ha... But ya the day she came down I found out he was doing a last-minute little show in Provo so we decided to go! It was so good, as always. Here's us before it started.

Oh ya! And before the show started we were waiting in line and we found out that they were shooting a commercial inside for some guitar app, so they asked us to be in it! All we did was be part of a crowd, but it was still pretty cool! After the concert we went to Sammy's and got their famous pie shakes! Sooo good.

Anyway, that's what's been goin on the last little while. EFY starts in Heritage next week. Wish me luck!

"Heritage Halls, This is Danielle..." / Goodbye, Freshman Year!

Goodbye, Freshman Year! Boy oh boy. I had a really good year. I feel like my whole "freshman experience" was pretty spot-on, which is awesome. But I'm also totally ready to move on. I made some extremely good friends and grew up a lot. Moving out last week was pretty rough. I would say that I'm Danielle and I don't cry, but I would be lying, haha. Some tears were shed...I'll miss my friends!
Anyway! Life goes on, and so does this blog:) My new job is going awesomely. It's really cool because me and my 8 coworkers all started at the same time and we all live here in Heritage, so we're all already pretty good friends. The work is challenging and stressful at times, but we're all learning and it's getting better. (Wow I sound like I'm on a mission). But I'm learning a lot, and honestly I feel like I've gained a lot of confidence that I didn't know I was missing. I feel like a WOMAN, people!!
Something that's weird is that I live in this apartment all by myself. There are 5 empty beds... and then mine. Haha it's pretty quiet and weird sometimes, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be at first. I don't spend a ton of time in my apartment anyway, and even when I do, LaChelle comes over a lot and keeps me company so it's not bad at all. And Devrey is on her way here as we speak!:) A big perk is getting the bathroom completely to myself;)
Anyway, that's pretty much it. I'm coming home for 9 days in May, horray!! I'm pretty freaking excited to see Jessie, Tyler, Isaac and Kennedy, and to see Brett and Cherice's new girl!! Until then, peace out!

Festival of Colors and Other Stuff!

Howdy! The last few weeks have been interesting -- lots of changes. But it's been good! I can't believe this semester is almost over. I don't feel old enough to be done with one year of school. Ok, yes I do. Haha but it's been good!
Lots of this semester has consisted of basketball, basketball, basketball! I've never been into college basketball before coming here, obviously, but it's been such a blast going to the games and witnessing the "dream season" for the Cougars. Sadly it all had to come to an end, but really it was so awesome to be a part of everything. I love my school! We went to almost all the home games. They were such a blast!! Even when they were in the middle of the week they were fun to go to and take a break from everything.


Working at Subway is alright. It keeps me busy and keeps me unpoor. The more I work though the better it gets, so it's all good. I won't be working there for much longer though! Once summer starts I'll be working as a CA (Conference Assistant) for on-campus housing at Heritage Halls. Don't ask me what a CA does...not yet anyway haha. I sortof have an idea, but not really a lot. All I know is it's "a lot of work" (so I hear), it'll be basically full-time, and included in my salary is my housing payments and a meal plan. So that part is pretty sweet!! So that will be my summer. I'm pretty excited!
You probably already saw on Devrey's blog, but last Saturday was the Festival of Colors! Devrey and her friends went at an earlier time than we did, so we didn't see eachother:( It was so dang fun though! I had no idea what to expect, but it definitely exceeded my expectations. It was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done. The group was me, Jayde, Logan, Logan's roommate Trevor, Trevor's friend Brady, and Brady's roommate Brad. Haha. Here are some pictures!


Also, here's a really good video I found of the whole thing. Because you have to see it in action to get the whole effect! We weren't up front with all the dancing and stuff, haha but this gives you a good idea of what it was like.


That is a really weird thumbnail picture. I didn't make out with anybody. Just push play!

Danielle out!

I Spoke Too Soon...

So...I guess we could say that Search #2 is over! Yesterday I got a call from the Cougareat asking if I could come in and interview for a job today. Um...heck ya!

I applied there about a month ago when they had a ton of openings and but I never heard from them so I had completely forgot about it. So when they called me I was really surprised but really happy! I went to my interview this morning and then they called me a little bit later and told me they thought I did really well in the interview and asked if I would like the job. I'm so excited! It's not the best place I could've gotten, but I'm not complaining for sure. I'm taking what I can get. Plus I get some sweet discounts;) I just applied to the Cougareat in general so there was a number of different places they could've put me, so I ended up at Subway. I always told myself I would never ever work at Subway but... I guess I'm going back on that now haha.
So anyway, I said I would update when I found a job so here it is. I feel super blessed and lucky.
Oh, and I completely owned my Bio exam today. It's been a good week:)

One Search Ends, Another Continues

Pretty good couple of weeks! Classes are going well, I've got 3 exams this week but I feel like I've got some good preparing time so I'm not too worried about them (yet). I've only been having two major stresses, and one of them is over thankfully. The time came for Jayde and I to have to start looking for a place to live for next fall and winter. It kind of sneaked up on me so we had to get started quickly. We took a couple of afternoons and drove around and looked at a ton of apartments. In some ways it was really fun, in other ways it was soooo.....frustrating! I'm sure you can all relate. There are just so many factors to consider and then the fact that mine and Jayde's tastes tend to differ didn't really help out a lot. But finally we found a place that I think we agree on. I really like it, so I hope no one's mind get's changed. Anyway it's called Sparks II. It's south of campus, and I didn't learn till after that it's the same place Dustin lived last summer.

Try not to be too blown away by it's fanciness;)

But...it's got...BED-CAVES!

Haha ya...that was pretty much the selling point for me. Haha but anyway it feels good to have that taken care of and squared way. The search that is still continuing is the job search! I can't count how many places I've applied at, but anyway I'm still trying. I keep having to remind myself that it's not like I'm going to immediately DIE right when my bank account reaches zero, but it's still frustrating. Mom...Dad...watch out. Ha...
Today was awesome because me and the sibs got to hang out and watch the Superbowl together. The Keesler's let us come over and join their party so Me, Devrey, Dustin and Amy, and Kevin and Tiffany all got to be together. It was great! I really don't care about football, but family is awesome haha. Thanks for the invite and everything, Tiffany!
Anyway that's about it for now, I hope everyone is doing great! Hope to see you all soon!:)

Holidays and New Semester

Hey everybody! Time for an update.

The holidays were awesome!! Thanksgiving was very nice and relaxing (and tasty), and it was so good to see everyone and also catch up with some friends. However, I quickly found myself missing Provo way more than I expected to! I missed my friends and my routine.
Christmas was another story. From day one I was not missing this place one bit and it stayed that way the entire two weeks! I don't really know what the difference was. Probably the fact that the semester was over and I was back on a clean slate; I didn't feel like coming back and starting all over again! But anyway it was sweet to be home. It felt like nothing had changed and that I had never left, but at the same time that a LOT had changed. I went back to work at Mr. Pizza for some extra money, which was a good time, and Shannon was nice enough to give me a lot of hours. I also got to hang out with quite a few high school friends, which felt really good too! I loved being able to spend time with the fam just hanging out and having fun. There's no place like home:)
(This is out of order but) finals went pretty well too. If you would've asked me in the middle of finals week how they were going, I probably would've just choked out some sort of "they're going alright" or something like that. Haha it was looking pretty sketchy there for a while and I was getting really disappointed with some of my scores. Mostly I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get good enough grades to keep my scholarship for next year, because I was either below or on the border of a good grade in almost every class. Anyway, somehow everything turned out totally fine and I got the grade I needed or better in every single class. And my scholarship is intact! So that sweetened up my Christmas break even more haha.
So this semester's classes started yesterday. Yesterday I had only one class, which was my communication disorders intro class. I loved it!! I'm so excited. My teacher is great and I can tell I'm going to love the subject. Today I had the rest of my classes. They went well too, but I can tell it's going to be a challenge! I'm only taking half a credit more than last semester, but it feels like 5 more haha. I think it'll take just lots of organization and focus and I'll be good! So my goals right now are to get into a good homework routine and get everything squared away, and also to find a JOB so I don't starve. I've applied to a few places, but we'll see how it goes. I'll post if anything happens!
Anyway, sorry if this post is pretty rambly. It sounds more like one of my journal entries haha, but I just wanted to be up to date on everything. Aaannnd....no pictures:( Darn it!

I'm Still Alive!

Hey everybody! I'm here. I'm alive. I'm still existing here in Provo. I might've blogged sooner but it honestly didn't seem like there was a whole lot to report. There still isn't a whole lot but I'll do some catching up here.
Classes are going awesome. Much better than before. I think I should definitely enjoy this semester while I can because even though at first I was struggling, my classes really aren't that tough. I've improved a ton, it was all just about getting in the swing of things. If things go like they have been I might be able to pull off a 3.8 or so for the semester, so cross your fingers!
So while I'm still on the subject of classes, I have some other news! I changed my major. Yep, now I'm just like every other college student! Dang it. But that's ok! So at first I was in Business Pre-Management wanting to go into either Marketing or Organizational Behavior/Human Resources. But the more I got into it the more I was having second thoughts. I started realizing that that kind of stuff wasn't really me, and wasn't really what I wanted. I could definitely learn to like it I know, but I wanted something I could really dive into and care about. So I did some looking around and decided that the Communication Disorders major sounded pretty dang awesome, and exactly what I wanted. If you don't know what that is then look it up, because I probably won't explain it right haha. So anyway I'm taking the intro class for it next semester; we'll see how it goes!:) I'm excited for it though.
Things outside of school have been going good too. I love my ward and I LOVE my fhe group and I've made some awesome friends. At first it was hard because I didn't feel like myself for a long time, and I just kind of felt like I was existing. But now that I know more people and recognize more faces and have like...actual relationships with people, I feel so much more normal. My roommates are great - like I said, I got really lucky. LaChelle, the one I share a room with who is from IF, is really awesome. I'm super grateful for her and I feel like we've been friends for much longer than we have been! Good times:)
Hmm what else. I am insanely excited for Thanksgiving. I've been anticipating this break to go home MUCH longer than I expected. I guess I'm more homesick than I thought;) But anyway, my plan was to leave tomorrow (Tuesday) but the weather has decided to be awesome and whip up a snowstorm at the exact time I would be driving. So I'll be leaving Wednesday morning instead:( I guess getting home 12 hours later will be worth not dying... But ya I'm excited to see all you guys and hang out!
I can't think of anything else, but here are some pictures that have collected on my camera. Enjoy!

Our pumpkin for the ward party. See my name carved in the back? Yeah.

Awesome almost-sunset out my window. There's a lot more snow now!

I have a class in this building at the perfect time for it to look AWESOME when I walk up to it. The picture isn't nearly as good as real life. It's times like this I appreciate my school haha.

Ok explanation for the next ones: I needed my hair trimmed REALLY bad. I also am extremely low on money. Solution? LaChelle: "I'll cut it for you!" Haha she doesn't know how, but we both decided it was worth a try. How hard can it be...? So we went really slow...and she made sure to cut only a little bit off. It turned out not half bad!! The bad ends are gone, so other than that I'm not super picky. I don't have any 'after' pictures but here are some from the process...



Also, LaChelle has a friend that is a SUPER good photographer. He doesn't usually do people pictures but he did for us, so we took some roommate pictures (super cheesy, I know. But it was fun). So here's a few of them!




Anyway...things are goin good. I can't wait to see all you guys! Thanks so much for your love and for caring about me. See ya soon!:)

Hikin' the Y!

This week was Homecoming Week! It was pretty awesome. We of course weren't able to go to every activity, but we went to a few. They were fun! Jayde and I went to Mr. BYU, which was soooo hilarious. Still can't compare to Mr. Russet, of course. We did a few other things but the coolest one was hiking the Y! On Tuesday night people could hike it and turn on the lightbulbs to light the Y for the rest of the week. The hike was a lot harder than I expected, but it was definitely worth it! Here are some sweet pics.

Before...

After!

The view was so dang pretty!

So anyway it was a pretty good week! Yesterday we went to the Homecoming game and we FINALLY won! It was a good time. Then last night I went to one of the homecoming dances with some FHE friends. The theme of this one was "Black and White" so everyone just wore black and white anything and then outside of the dance they had a bunch of tables set up with tons of paint and markers and stuff to decorate our clothes. It was so much fun!
So ya things are continuing to get better. I miss my friends at home so freaking much, but having Jayde and Logan here is amazing! And I'm making more and more friends so it's been really good. And I of course miss all of you guys like crazy! Thanks for the support and love.