Life's Busy-what's new?

My Dorm is ( well was) clean!  We had a cleaning check on last Thursday.  The dorm wasn't that messy, but we had to do a lot of deep cleaning that was time consuming.   Afterwards though I made sure to take lots of pictures! So now you can get a taste of what our dorm looks like.

This is the entry way that divides the living area from our rooms.  Of course, all the quotes you see on the wall were done by my Mom.  I love this one,and its been fun as people come and visit us.  We usually just leave our shoes in here, or Whitney and Leah will run through screaming chasin eachother during a food fight.  Not much else in here though

If you take a left fromt he entry way, you go to our hallway, bathrooms, and rooms.  We have two bathrooms-3 girls each.  This is the hallway though, complete with a quote by Audrey Hepburn (who will all adore!!! We have Audrey Hepburn movie nights lots, and there is a poster of her hanging in our kitchen that was given to me by Katie Shurtz. Love it!) and then you can see the vanity, which is between the two bathrooms.  We don't have to  much trouble sharing the mirrors or getting ready, it all works out very nicely!  And we are good sharers :)

 This is Jeanice's and my room!!! Our room is happy with quotes from Walt Disney and Audrey Hepburn.  Our colors even match!  We have the same sheet set of aqua blue, and then we both have hot pink things too.  I am pretty sure we were a match made in heaven.  I am so thankful for my roommate.  I am so glad she puts up with me and has become such a good friend!  We have lots of fun.

 My side of the room.  On my desk you can see all my little tid bits and memories.  I have letters and pictures pinned up on the board, and on top lots of different gifts from family members.  Landon wrote me a book called "My Sister Tells me No" that I love and keep up there.  Derek spent a lot of time for Christmas making my name carved out in wood-then he spent even more time sanding it.  Its beautiful work!  I have dried roses my Daddy gave me (first flowers!) in 7th grade after I was Annie in the musical. I also have Dr. Suess Book Oh the Places You will Go  that my Mom gave me for graduation.  She took the time to get all of my teachers to sign it-I love it so much.  Shen I am missing home my little shelf of love helps :) Life is wonderful here but I sure do miss my family.  I am so blessed to have them!

Anyhow, moving on :) Each of us were assigned chores!!!! Whitney had the showers:

 Leah had the fridge:

 And this is me being a dork and tackling on the vanity that was covered in 6 girl's worth of hairspray, toothpaste, and more.  The battle was long, but I won!  (look how shiny that faucet is!!)

And so if you back to the entry way, and take a right now instead, you go to our living area.  We have a great kitchen and seating area.  You can't see it but in the other corner where the coaches are facing is a TV (Leah's) where we have our girl, and often our FHE Bro's join in on those, movie nights.  Notice the quote wall that Whitney is reading.  We say some pretty great things :) Quote walls are kind of notorious at BYU.  It's great decoration.  Mostly, it's cheap decoration.  Who doesn't love a sticky note?  We do!

So there is the dorm.  The place is really nice because its pretty much brand new.  We'll see how long it stays that clean-I'll try to keep it that way!

Studying in the dorm isn't always very effective, and so the library is my go to. (I am actually sitting my spot right now, taking a break from homework).  I have my little area where I usually work.  I also have a designated nap area.  By the time Friday gets here, and after waking up at 4 for work, I am usually pretty exhausted.  Before I can study, or function really, I will need a 30 min nap.  I am a power nap Queen!!!  In the 4th floor of the library in the Women's bathroom their is a little lounge.  It is a wonderful place to take naps:

 Occasionally I sleep in the chair, but usually I curl up in that corner.  Then I am good to go for the day! You aren't officially a college student until you sleep on campus.

So life here never gets dull.  There is always something going on.  Two weeks ago was homecoming, which was way fun.  There were a lot of different activities.  Tuesday Night they lit up the Y, and we could see it from our large Kitchen Window.  It was beautiful!  Wednesday was true blue foam.  They literally fill Helaman Field with Blue foam for a massive slip and slide, tug-o-war, and more.  I went with my friend and counselor from FOL camp, Sterling May.  There is a picture on facebook of us covered in foam.  Way fun!! Afterwards though I was so stained:

 Look!  I scared Jeanice!
  When we took this picture I had 5 minutes until I was supposed to meet Natalie for our Inter-mural Soccer Game.

(My poor team already has to put up with my awful skills, but then I had to play with blue version of my crappy skills.  Poor team!  I played soccer when I was in like 1st grade, and loved it.  I dreamed of being a soccer player and would go to the high school games.  When Natalie and I got asked to join a team, we thought it would be fun, and it was. However, we didn't realize we were going to be on a division 1 team.  Natalie and I are not division 1 level.  I went from playing a game where you were not suppossed to let the ball touch the ground (Volleyball) to now you can't touch it with your hands.  Luckily, I only tried digging it one game.  It was perfect, coming down in the air and I tomahawked it!  Great Dig; wrong sport though.  Oh well though!  Our Team name was 'Psych' and we had awesome t-shirts.)

To finish off homecoming week, my roommates and I went to the BYU Spectacular.  It's an event that showcases the different music and dance groups at BYU.  We saw Vocal Point, which was amazing!

Friday Night I went to the homecoming Dance with a friend, his roommates, and their dates.  We went to Brick Oven for dinner and had delicious Pizza!  We also went bowling and I almost won!  Actually, that is a lie because I am terrible at bowling, but it was fun.  The Dance was way fun too.  Of course we all got excited when the song "Gangnam Style" came on.  (If you haven't checked that song out, do please).  We finished by playing games and Slenderman.  I had a great date!

Saturday Night was the football game against Oregon.  We had a black out.
After the game we went to a little Mexican restaurant to celebrate Jesse turning in her Mission Papers!!! I am so excited for her!

 Last week was pretty routine.  Although we did have a booth in the Wilk for our Global Leadership group project.  We got over 100 students to make an evacuation plan in case of fire.  Yay team!

Friday of last week we went to a nerd dance.  Then Saturday night I finally learned how to play Texas Hold Em'!  I actually won the second game, although we only played with Natalie's pennies and quarters,and gave them all back once we were done.  It was fun though!  I made Peanut butter no bakes for everyone else, because one of our friends Cody hadn't ever tried them!  I also made brownies for Natalie and I from black beans.  Nat and I thought they were yummy, but everyone else wanted to puke.  more for us!  And they were healthy! No complaints there!  

Tonight, Jeanice and I are going to go watch Jesse preform with a singing group of sorts in the Varsity Theater. I have very talented roommates!

Now I am all caught up!  Well, on like 1/10 of the wonderfulness here of my life at BYU anyhow.

And As I was finding all the pictures for this blog, I came across this one.  The boys and I took this on the way to Hawaii this summer.  Sure do love and miss my boys!  I hope they know how much I love them. 

Love ya!

Life Happens

There is so much I could write about, college is so busy!  My typical week goes (so far) goes something like this:

Monday-Wake up at 5:00 to be out the door at 5:15.  Natalie and I have set a goal to go to the temple every Monday morning.  We are about a 15 min walk away, and I love it.  It is the perfect way to start my week!  Lately we have been going with my hometeacher and friend.  They give us a ride and are so kind!  Great guys!

 After that I rush back to get ready for class by 9:00.  My first class of the day is in the Clyde Building- Global Leadership.  The entire class is focused on developing leadership skills for future opportunities.  Specifically, its for engineers who will probably one day run some big corporation.  I am learning lots though that even applies for a Social Science Teaching major (which is what I am declared as currently) who is a freshman :).  Hopefully I can learn techniques and skills that I can one day bring to my future students.




Next Class at 10: 00 is American Heritage-possibly my favorite class.  It is a huge class (each class varies from 300 to 900 people) but it reminds me a lot of    AP History, and my professor is hilarious.  One day he danced "Gangnam" for us, and another day he auctioned off Krispie Kremes!  We are learning about the American Government, economics, history, and more.  Love it!

11:00 is my Book of Mormon class.  A lot of the other classes are flying through, but I really enjoy my class because we are going really deep.  My professor spent a lot of time setting a solid base for the time frame of the Book of Mormon in reference to the Bible, and also how it was translated by Joseph Smith.  We are also going to spend a lot of time in the Nephi/Revelation chapters-which I am very excited I about.

From 12 to 1 I have lunch break, where I meet up with Natalie and her roommate Shana, and my roommate Jeanice.  Here is a picture of Jeanice and I this Monday: It was finally cold enough for sweaters and we were so excited we wore matching ones!  It was great :)

At 1 I have my Issues In Contemporary Art Class.  I originally took it because it kicks off a GE, but it is actually a great class.  There are about 10 people in the class, and the professor is fun and insightful.  I am about as far as it gets from artistic-especially contemporary art, but this is really good for me to appreciate the art culture.  We discuss different aspects, do a blog discussing contemporary artists, and more.  It's different, but I enjoy it.  It gets done at 2:30

After classes I go workout, study, and then have FHE.  We have a great FHE group!  So far we have hiked the Y, ice-blocked, made pizza, watched UP and did activities, and more.   It has been a lot of fun, I am very blessed to have such a good FHE family here.  The guys really care about us and are a lot of fun.

Tuesday: Up at 4 am!  And out the door by 4:35 or 4:45, depending on if I am supervising at work or not.  I am a grocery stocker at the BYU Creamery, which is basically a grocery store.  It's early, but I enjoy the people I work with and I don't mind the work because you have to move quick.  If you go slow you'll be there forever loading the shipment onto shelves.  I finish work somewhere around 10, and then I go to devotional!

I love devotional!  Every Tuesday at 11 the entire campus takes a break to go to the Marriot Center (where they have basketball games) and watch a spiritual message from a BYU faculty member or church leader.  I look forward to when I get to hear President Monson or someone in person, but so far the other speakers have shared great messages.  Sometimes instead of a devotional we will have a forum, which is essentially a lecture on a non gospel topic.  Last week for example we were visited by __, who talked to us about the constitution.  It was very interesting.

After devotional Biology!  My only class for the day.  I am not especially interested in math or science, but the class is good.  I really like my professor.  His philosophy is not to use textbooks or other sources that won't matter after college (and don't really matter in college for anyways), but rather to use recent science journals and studies that he hopes we will continue to learn about and read even after college.  I have learned a lot of interesting things, however not taking bio in high school makes it a little more difficult.  I have met with the TAs and set up an appointment with a tutor to make sure I am completely ready for my mid term.  I am worried, but I am working as hard as I can and that is all I can do.

After Tuesday's class at 2:40 I go to Dickson Middle School for a mentorship program for girls there.  The program is through the BYU Women's Services and Resources Club, which I joined.  The point of the program is to help girls with body image and self esteem.  I am very passionate about it and really look forward to helping the girls.  I think that is a really critical age for their development and I hope I can have a positive influence in their lives that will better prepare them for the trials many girls go through today.

The rest of the day is filled with studying and whatever else I might have!


Wed is basically a repeat of Monday, and Thursday is sort of a repeat of Tuesday.  Friday I only have one class at 9, then the rest of the day I try and get as much homework done as possible so I can enjoy the weekend!

I love my professors and enjoy my classes.  I am really blessed to have such a great academic schedule!  The social part is awesome too, but that'll be for another post :)