you wish you knew everything we do

I'm just going to put some snippets of what we've been up to lately...

Making snow angels

Admiring downtown Rexburg in it's Christmas glory

Parking ourselves at the pizza buffet and stuffing our faces for two and half hours

And cramming into the smallest of small cars so we didn't have to walk home.

Family pictures by our very own fireplace

Going to the last BYU-Idaho devotional in the Hart Auditorium. 



And not documented:

Watching six movies in one weekend. We didn't go to bed before two all weekend.

Presentations galore

Studying our little bums off for finals

Crocheting hats (oh wait, we have put pictures of that)

Beginning the dreaded cleaning process for white glove on Saturday!

Trying not to think about the fact that the semester is ending

Enjoying our last few weeks together!



snowflakes and ornaments

Have I talked enough about how much I adore my roommates? A few nights ago we started decorating our living room with Christmas decorations--glittery paper snowflakes, streams of lights, a pink barbie christmas tree, and a legitamite fireplace made of paper. See for yourself:

Also, there may be a little bit of a crochet fetish happening in our room. It's cool. :)

I made that hat on Whitney's head. Winner, I know.

oh what i love

We got back to good old Rexburg yesterday afternoon at about 3:00 after an incredibly uneventful ride, for which we were all grateful. Today as I have walked in the snow and cold to all of my classes, attended devotional, had dinner with my wonderful roomies and done homework, I have been kind of overwhelmed with things that I love about being here at BYU-Idaho, especially on this day.

I love my morning routine, it is the same every morning and I love that

I love seeing my best friend Whitney in the bed next to me

I love having direction as I go to my classes

I love that I was wearing a hat that I made that kept my head nice and warm

I love musicianship, as always

I love that I connected with a kid that went on splits with the missionaries in Pennsylvania--specifically my best friend missionary in Pennsylvania

I love coming home for 5 minutes and exchanging hello's and kind words with my roommates

I love going to Book of Mormon and feeling the spirit and having my questions answered

I love that I'm finally figuring out the best way for me to learn in Science (although I hate that it's taken me this long to figure it out)

I love nice boys

I love going to devotional, I love that Whitney saves us a seat and that I get to sit with people that I adore :)

I love that the devotional speaker talked about specifially what I needed to hear

I love my roommate Ashley and how silly she is on pain killers

I love that I'm going to Bajio this week...

I love that we didn't even care that we were late for choir

I love that I practiced FOREVER today and that I sounded GOOD

I love eating dinner with my roommates

I love that I felt ready to focus on studying things after dinner

I love that our home teachers came over tonight, I loved their lesson and I espcially loved that they gave Ashley a blessing. It felt so wonderful to have the priesthood in our home.

I love the priesthood and the knowledge that I can turn to any of the great guys I have met up here if I need to.

I love writing letters to my best friend

I love the vending machine runs to get orange juice--to no avail

I love the overwhelming feeling of the spirit that pervades every space on this campus. I love feeling God's presense so closely. I love receiving witness every minute that He is there for me and loves me.

I love this place.

i spoke too soon

Well, thanks to the sudden appearance of ridiculous amounts of snow here in Utah and in Rexburg, our trip back to school has been delayed a day. We are now leaving tomorrow. Am I missing classes? Yup. Am I missing study time? Yup. Am I happy about that? Not at all. But it's better to arrive home in one piece, rather than in pieces. These things have a way of working themselves out. It's all good.

the thanksgiving break

I can't believe that I've been home for over a week. It feels like I never left, which I knew it would feel that way. It's been SO great to be home, and I'm actually really sad to be going back to Rexburg tomorrow. But I'm sure I'll jump back into the swing of things up there.

I had some goals for this break, some of which were accomplished, some...kind of not. Let's take a look:

1) Find a job: Well, I applied to a ton of places including Old Navy, Target, Pizza Factory, Seagull Book, and more, but applying somewhere doesn't secure a job for the winter. If you want to pray for me to help me out, I would love you forever. :)

2) Make some money: There's a family from my home ward that love to have me babysit their kids, and I knew that if I let them know I was interested, they would have me come over for a job. Sure enough, they had me do an overnight job (which they pay REALLY well for) Friday-Saturday. Success.

3) Be with my family:): I loved getting to be with my family. We went to Cafe Rio and to a play, saw Harry Potter 7 (which I LOVED), watched a lot of Friends, obviously Thursday and Friday were huge family days and it was wonderful to see all of my extended family. I loved the family time this break.

4) See some old friends: I was anxious to see how this would turn out, if I would even want to associate with some of the friends I left behind, but I got to see and reconnect with a lot of my really great friends! I had amazing chats with some of my favorite old YW leaders, got to be there when my childhood best friend blessed her baby and spent a lot of time with her and her husband, visited my Chamber Choir, got some frozen yogurt with a couple of my favorite girls, got to spend some time with people from my old "groups" from high school, and visit with more of my friends one on one. I'm SO glad for all of the great people I got to visit, it made me feel loved and happy.

5) Exercise every day: I bought a month pass to the rec center because I told myself that if I went three times, it would be worth it. Yeah, I went once. Fail. Although I did do the temple run on Saturday which was AMAZING. The last time I did that run, I couldn't even do it, I had to cut it short. So at least I did that...

6) Eat a TON of food: You know, this didn't actually happen. Apparently my appetite as shrunk a huge amount since I went to college, because I just didn't have the desire to eat a ton. My thanksgiving feast, one helping that I couldn't even finish. I know right?

7) Crochet like a maniac: Which I already do at college. On Thanksgiving, my Aunt Ruth taught a bunch of us how to crochet hats. They are darling, I've made 8. I just get cooler and cooler.

8) Study a little every day, and practice at least 3 times: Major fail. I studied for like 20 minutes and got through about half a practice session until my mom came home and said "let's go to lunch" which I clearly would rather do. This is bad news though because finals are SO SOON and along with finals are JURIES which I am not even close to being ready for but here they come. Oh bad bad news.

9) Rest and recover: The resting part, not so much, but the recovering was enormous. It was so cleansing and healing to be surrounded by so many people I love and who love me. I adore my roommates and neighbors, but there was just something about being around these people who have known me for years that had a really good affect on me. I don't necessarily want to go back and study hard and focus, but I feel like I can now. I'll make it just fine. :)

Prepare yourself Rexburg, I'm coming home.

I love that I walked in my door, and my brother went back to watching Smallville, so I had to force him off the couch to give me a real hug.
And I heard my mommy squeal my name and run out of her bedroom and give me the biggest hug.
And my daddy was so happy to see me, and I may have squeezed his guts out a little.
And then my two lovely sisters ran up the stairs and gave me huge hugs.
And I just cried a little bit but they were such happy tears.
I am so happy to be home for a little while.
I love my family so much.
Also, my mom thinks it's weird that Cammie and I are in love.
Can I get some feedback on this?
Is it weird to call your sister your lover?
Ok, when I put it like that it is a little...

it's finally come

I cannot even believe that I am going home today. It's been a month and a half since I've seen my family, but the thought of going home and being with them feels like it hasn't been nearly that long. I've tried really hard since I've been up here to truly live up here in Idaho, and not dwell very much on my home in Utah, it's hard for me to be in two places at once. So all of my focus has been on living up in Rexburg, and I haven't thought too much about my home and stuff. I can't really describe it. I can't believe that I haven't seen my families faces for so long. It just doesn't make any sense to me. It feels like I am always connected to them even though I am far away, and living a life that is entirely different than they are living. But at the same time, I feel so close to them, like I could just pop in and say hello any time I wanted to, even though I really can't. I don't know. It's all very strange.
I'm also SO excited to just have a break from school, and this routine. I love routines, I love being consistent and having a set plan and sticking to it, but sometimes it gets really monotonous. I'm so looking forward to not having to think about school work and homework. To have a time to just play and be with family and friends.
I hope that going home will be a good experience, and that I won't miss it up here too much, or that I won't dread coming back. I hope that at the end of the break it will be easy for me to get back into the swing of things up here. Because I really need to focus the last three weeks that I'm up here. Because I'll have finals, and juries. It's going to be intense for a while. But for now, I just get to have a break. Thank heavens.