Utah

This last weekend I drove to see my sister Jane in Salt Lake City and had a great time. Every time, I get lost on the way to Jane's house and I have to call her and look an idiot. Geez. Maybe one of these times I will grow up and be able to get by on my own :)

Jane, Joe and I went to the new mall that just opened up in downtown Salt Lake City. It is so pretty! Part of it is outside, and part of it has a retractable ceiling, I thought that was pretty cool. The stores were so fancy and so many pretty things to look at!

Jane and I went to Whole Foods, and they had the prettiest flowers! It makes me so excited for springtime, because I am such a sucker for flowers.

 Saturday afternoon we all went to see The Hunger Games. I will admit, I was not very excited. I felt like I was going to be part of another culture clique so I purposely avoided the books. But I will admit that I was wrong. I really like the movie. A lot. Joe emailed me the books for my kindle and I may or may not have read the trilogy in 4 days... I fully recommend them to anyone over the age of 13! (They are slightly gruesome. However, Peeta will forever be my dream man- seriously he is perfect. )

After the movie, Jane took me to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner for my birthday and it was delicious! Mmm...I love Italian food. 

Jane, Joe and I went for a walk through the Avenues right next to the U of U campus. SUCH pretty houses! But my favorite is the one on the right above, they have this really cool patio above their garage. Very nice use of space in my opinion.

Update on life!

So, I have been really slacking in the blogging department, but I promise to be better!
This semester has been great! I have been working in Idaho Falls, working at a preschool for developmentally disabled children- they are awesome! However, I am quitting my job when spring semester rolls around because it is just hard with time and gas money and so on. But I will be going back home for the 7 week break to work harvest (third year in a row- yay me, jk)




My birthday was a few weeks ago- shout out to my roommate Kate! She made it the BEST birthday I have had in a long time. She planned everything- we went to Paul Mitchell where I got my hair cut and styled just for my birfday. And she made my AMAZING cake and beautiful decorations. I got to share my birthday party with my good friend Matt Kelly, so much fun. We sang karaoke and made way too much noise. Matt and I shoved cake in each others faces ( I got him much better than he got me tee hee)  

Kate and I have this unhealthy obsession with thrifting at DI on the weekends. We may have actually been the last people leaving DI on Saturday night, and the manager may or may not have locked the door behind us...

I love Kate:)Best roommate!


Reasons to be happy:)
* General Conference is this weekend, and I am super excited!
* 6 more days of work, then I get to go home for a break
* Star Wars... So good
* My mommy loves me...:)
* Books! I miss reading, I need to get back into it, make us of my awesome new Kindle
* Road trips- I love leaving my problems behind

* On our way to a fantastic bonfire

Rexburg

So the past couple of weeks have been super stressful for me. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to have gone home, or if it was the right thing to do, coming back to Rexburg. I currently do not have a job... but I DO have a job interview tomorrow! Cross your fingers for me eh?


Anyways, I ended up getting a priesthood blessing from a friend, and man, it was powerful. I do not remember all of what he said other than to just stay firm in the gospel. But I will never forget that feeling. I literally could feel my heartbeat slow down, my chest and shoulders felt lighter, it was the most incredible feeling. 


I then had this super intense conversation with a good friend I just met named Zach.  He told me this, and I just love it so much I have to share it :
"and i learned an interesting thing about repentance and forgiveness once. how long does it take forgive?...........by the time you got to this sentence forgiveness could be complete. it takes practice and faith, but it's possible. it's harder to forgive yourself but it's just looking at it as "what's done is done" take care of it with the people you have to, the Lord, the bishop, and that's all you can do. i think my lack of short term memory helps me forgive people fast...but forgiving myself for what i did to others in the past was the hardest, especially when it came down to the choices they made because of what i said and did. but talk to people you affected and tell them you were wrong or whatever, that helps." 


This past couple of weeks have been really hard, but they have also been really crucial to the development of my faith and remembering that I need to trust the Savior, my big brother.Everything will be okay!




THINGS TO BE HAPPY ABOUT:]

•  my hair is growing long!
• priesthood blessings
• meaningful conversations with people you just met
•  prayer
• awesome roommates that are so understanding
• confidence- i got me some!
•  finding clothes on sale
• choice- you DO have it
• GREAT ward and FHE brothers, this is going to be a great semester!
• My family loves me :):):)
• working out... i love working out:)
• fresh starts, new beginnings

Its good to go home

I have been home for two weeks now for Christmas Break, and I am ready to go back to Rexburg! But, its nice to go home once in a while to see that many things don't ever change. Like downtown. Yesterday I went with my two sisters, nieces and nephew to go feed the ducks in downtown Spokane after we rode the giant red wagon. Then we rode the carousel which was so much fun.
Here are some IPOD pics:)

 The ducks really liked us! 

 Spokane never changes, these blocks have been here since... forever:)

Things to be happy about:)

• family
• my testimony of Jesus Christ
• new music... free new music
• outdoors
• fresh starts. i could really use one right now
• job opportunities!!!

Exercise... Its good for ya:D

So this past weekend I went to Jackson Hole WY through the BYU-Idaho Outdoor Activities Group. Super fun! I kind of spontaneously decided I wanted to go rock climbing, so I signed up the night before. After I got there I realized I was crashing a serious manfest. Out of 12 people, there was me and one other girl. And she didn't talk to me at all. So yeah, lots of boys. And they all sounded like they knew what they were doing, which scared me a bit because I have only gone a few times.
It was just under 2 hours to drive to Jackson, and the drive was beautiful.

It was also lots of fun to talk with the guys in the car. I found out that Kevin is my musical soul mate. I love his music! But, by the time we go to the gym, I decided he was a bit obnoxious. He dragged me to all the walls he climbed and talked about how difficult they were to climb... ya de ya da. 
But, the rest of it was really nice and fun because I kept getting the guys walking up to me and offering to belay me. Really nice, but nerve racking at the same time. Because they are on the floor and they can stare up at me and wham, my butt is in their face.  I have a big butt. My dad likes to call me "Tex" because my butt is the size of Texas (one of the biggest states in the U.S). So they aren't actually looking at me from my best angle. Whatever, I guess I am not looking for a boyfriend right now anyways:D

Jacob was a lot of fun to watch as he climbed this beast. He eventually made it all the way to the top!

Ben told me he had never rock climbed before. He was really good!

Then when we got back to Rexburg there was a beautiful sunset:)

Basically, this weekend was pretty awesome. I am genuinely really happy with life right now.( Except that it was -3 when I walked to my 9 o'clock class this morning)


Things to be happy about:D

• Healthy bodies... they are pretty awesome
• Water, its delicious homie!
• The semester is almost over! So close... then I can have one more semester under my belt
• Books- I love a happy ending
• Everybody is going to be home for Christmas this year... Kinda weird, We havent all been together in 2.5 years
• Sleep. Sleep is good
• White chocolate chip pancakes. YUM

i love fridays

yesterday was a great day! to start off with, my one and only class was cancelled, so that was pretty nice. i went to the temple with my good friend tori howell. i love this girl! she is one of the sweetest people i know, always doing the nice thing. and it doesn't hurt that she loves prison break and friends just as much as i do! this picture is from last semester, because we forgot to take one at the temple. 

so, anyways, we went to the temple. it was so great! we made it a goal to go every friday morning now. it is just so pretty there! and it just makes you reevaluate your life  plans/goals. what do i really want in life? what am i currently doing to achieve those goals? it just made things stay in perspective.

and then after the temple we went to ramirez for breakfast burritos. it was delicious! 

then i did homework for a few hours and got some very important assignments done. so that was a good feeling. later that night, i went to a dance party in the hemming village basement with my friend hannah from my sped class. it was so much fun! it was really hot though, that was kind of gross. overall it was a great day(:

THINGS TO BE HAPPY ABOUT:

• exercise. tis good for the body
• people noticing you have lost weight from said exercise'
• awesome FHE brothers who randomly stop by
• FRIENDS~ makes me laugh every time i watch an episode
•  blue raspberry frooties~ they are so delicious 

I need a hero

So last night I went to see the new version of Footloose with my good friend Tori.I loved it so much!!!  I love this song that goes with it

Some of my favorite part of the lyrics:

Isn't there a white knight
Upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and turn
And dream of what I need

I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero till the end of the night
He's gotta be strong, he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight

I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero till the morning light
He's gotta be sure, he's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life, larger than life

Somewhere after midnight
In my wildest fantasies
Somewhere just beyond my reach
There's someone reaching back for me

Racing on the thunder
And rising with the heat
Isn't there a Superman
To sweep me off my feet?

Through the wind and then the chill and the rain
And the storm and the raging flood
Oh, his approaches like a fire in my blood

I'll meet a hero
And then we'll dance till the morning light
Dreaming, he will lead me
Held tight, tonight's the night

So, I loved the whole thing but one of my favorite parts was when Ren McCormack saw Ariel Moore in her dress, he just stopped and stared for a minute because he was in awe. I know this is just me being super sappy, but I just loved it;) Watch the movie sometime, you will not be disappointed