I'm a Big Kid Now!

Good news! I'm officially DONE with my first semester of college! And let me tell you, it was a crazy one.  I mean I guess I don't really have anything to compare it with, but it seemed pretty crazy to me! I learned so many new things about myself that I never knew.  Apparently I have a sassy side in me that I didn't discover until I met Nahiomi.  Also, I can actually survive subzero temperatures! Who knew?! I sure didn't think I could do it.  I also didn't realize that I can sing opera.  Now just because I can sing opera does not mean that I can sing opera well or that I enjoy to sing opera, but I'm trying to learn to enjoy it.  I learned that Heavenly Father truly does hear and answer all our prayers, even if it isn't how we expect.  And finally, I realized how much I am truly blessed.  Even in the middle of trials, I could always reflect on my life and see endless blessings from my Father in Heaven.  So here are just a few of the things that I was blessed with this semester (in no particular order).

1. The Rexburg, Idaho Temple

Even though I didn't attend the temple nearly as much as I should have, it was amazing for me to be able to look up and see the temple each day as I was walking to class.  It was so amazing to have that constant reminder of why I need to do my very best each day.

2. Lauren and Nahiomi

I love these girls so freakin much. I don't know what I would have done this semester without either of them! Lauren is such an amazing example to me in so many ways!  Even if she didn't know it at the time, she always helped me by to remember to say my prayers each night.  She is so in-tune with the Spirit and I admire that so much! Not to mention how gorgeous she is.  She will never ever admit that this is true, but Lauren could wear no makeup at all and still look flawless.  And she's pretty dang hilarious too.  Especially when you get a little Red Bull in her system (;  Then there's Nahiomi.  She just cracks me up every single day!  Only Nahiomi and I can make fun of each other as much as we do and still know that we love the crap out of each other (;  I'm so excited to see everything she accomplishes in Guatemala and on her mission wherever she goes!  She is going to be the greatest missionary ever, even if she does go to Georgia (;

3. Tender Mercies

 

It's the little things like cupcakes on a bad day, new fuzzy socks when it's cold outside, packages from your sister, and President Monson shaking a little boy's hand after General Conference that you don't ever forget.  There are so many tender mercies in our lives; all we have to do is look for them and we will realize how blessed we are.

4. Tickets to Wisconsin

If you've never lived a thousand miles from home, let me tell you, it's hard! Obviously I loved it in Idaho, but there were days where all I wanted to do was go home and even though I didn't get to do that, I was lucky enough to get to fly out and see my family in Wisconsin for a weekend.  I had such a great time and after that, it was so much easier for me to push through the hard days.

5. Devotionals

Maybe it's just me, but I think it's so cool that at BYU-I we have the opportunity to all meet together every week to hear from inspired men and women.  Even though sometimes I had to drag my feet to devotional, I never once regretted going.  The Spirit you feel in a room full of thousands of disciples of Christ ready to learn about the Gospel is incredible and each week I learn something new.  I also got to sing with my choir in devotional several times which gave me an entirely new perspective as I got to look out and see all of my fellow students in the audience.

So basically, I think it's safe to say that I go to the greatest school ever! I know I just got home, but I already miss Rexburg and the people there. BYU-Idaho truly is an inspired school led by inspired people.  That being said, it is so great to be back home again! I missed everyone and everything about Fishers like crazy!  Rexburg is great, but Fishers will always be my home.  I'm so excited to spend the next 4 months here (:

♥♥♥ Grateful ♥♥♥

Happy Thanksgiving!

So as you all know, last weekend was Thanksgiving and since I live a bit far from home, I went to Logan, Utah and spent Thanksgiving with my grandparents, my dad's sister, and her family. It was really great to spend time with them.  I love that even though I don't get to see all of my family that often, we still know each other so well and have such a fun time together.

I got to spend time with these precious cuties.  Ruby (left) and Lucy (right) were born several weeks early, so they're my little miracle cousins. I absolutely loved hanging out with them! I also got to play with their 3 older brothers that I met for the first time last summer. The youngest, Max, kept telling his brothers that he only wanted to play with "the girl" (me) haha. They crack me up! So we all had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner together and then on Friday I met up with Lauren and Nahiomi in Salt Lake City to see the lights on Temple Square.  I'm so lucky to have been able to see the this beautiful city all lit up 2 years in a row.   Everywhere you look you see hundreds of millions of lights.  They cover every inch of every tree and light up the entire square. It's so breathtakingly beautiful.

After we walked around Temple Square, I met up with my mom's youngest brother and his wife who live right by Temple Square and we went to get hot chocolate. I wish I remembered the name of the place we went to because it was some of the best hot chocolate I have ever had! It was also great to catch up with my aunt and uncle since I don't see them that often.  Once I went back to Logan, I just hung out with everyone some more before I had to go back to Rexburg.  I just love these sweet little girls so much and I miss them already!  They're growing up so fast!

Back to the 'Berg

Sadly, vacation couldn't last forever and I had to come back to Rexburg, but I still got to do some pretty fun stuff this week! On Monday our FHE group got to go for a ride in Bishop's helicopter! I have now decided that when I'm married my husband will own a helicopter and we will travel America in it (; But seriously, the view of Idaho Falls from a helicopter is beautiful!

That huge building you see is the Idaho Falls temple.  It was so cool to see a temple of the Lord from this perspective and it reminded me that no matter where we are in life, physically or spiritually, we can always have the temple in our sights.

But really. I want one.

It also snowed like a crap ton here this week.  And for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to go take a picture like this in the snow.  Also, it was about -10 degrees when I did this. I'm obviously not the brightest kid on the block...but as fun as snow can be, it has definitely caused some problems.  If you don't know anything about the city or Rexburg, picture it like this.  It's like a giant hill with the temple at the top, then BYU-Idaho a little below that, and my apartment complex is pretty much at the bottom.  So to get from my apartment to anywhere on campus, I have to drive up a hill.  Now I've driven in snow before, but that was in Fishers, IN...the flattest place on earth.  I'm sure you can imagine my frustration as I'm struggling to drive up an ice-covered, unsalted, unplowed, uphill road in 2nd gear going absolutely no where.  I was about to give up when I thought to say a quick prayer to myself. It was nothing fancy, just a simple "Heavenly Father please help me up this hill". Next thing I know I'm moving.  I looked in my mirror to see what was going on and a group of guys pushing my car up the hill.  Only at BYU-Idaho.  What a great reminder that even though Heavenly Father might not physically be with us, He can and will always send us help through His servants if we just ask for it. I am so grateful that I go to a school where students are so willing to serve, even in below zero temperatures. It is truly a blessing and I wouldn't want to be at any other school.  It's definitely been hard here and I'm more than excited to be back home in less than 2 weeks, but this school has blessed me in so many ways and I know that I was put here for a reason.

He Took Your F For You

This past Wednesday I accidentally slept in longer than I intended, so I had to rush to get ready and finish up my English homework that was due in about half an hour (sound familiar mom and dad?).  I was completely frantic by the time I finally finished and was headed out the door with about 5 minutes to get to my class that's 10 minutes away. I got to the door fully expecting Brother Schaffer to already be well into our inspirational thought for the day, but he was nowhere to be found.  Everyone was in their seats chatting and trying to decide how long they had to wait before they were allowed to go back home.  I sat down, relieved, and we decided the rule was 15 minutes.  We waited impatiently  for Brother Shaffer to show up and explain why he was so late. 10 minutes passed, and still no sign.  Finally, 13 minutes into class, Brother Shaffer walked in and we could tell something was wrong.  Brother Shaffer is the kind of teacher that is usually there at least 5 minutes early with a smile on his face, so we were all quite concerned when he walked in without saying a word.  After gaining his composure, he told us we had something very important to talk about. The discussion went a bit like this:  

Guys, I just came from a meeting with the English department.  Next semester a group of people will be coming to evaluate our school to make sure that it can still be an accredited university, and one of the most important things that they look at when accrediting a university is grade inflation.  When I was in college, the average grade was a C, but in this class, we have a B average.  This might sound like a good thing, but this makes it look like our class isn't difficult enough.  In order to fight this grade inflation, the head of the English department has decided that we will begin using a 'reverse curve' on our final paper.  In fact, it is possible that this policy will become school-wide.  A 'reverse curve' is exactly what it sounds like.  You will all write your final papers and the two lowest grades will automatically become F's and everything else will drop with it. So, if the lowest 2 grades are C's, they will drop 2 letter grades to an F', B's will drop to D's, and A's will drop to C's. 

As you can imagine, the class pretty much turned to mass chaos at this point.  In my head, I had already made up my mind. I'm not coming back to this school.  I will not go to a school that lowers my grade just because my class did well.  This is a school based on gospel principles, and this policy would go against every gospel principle I have ever learned.  Brother Shaffer agreed with this argument, and told us that he was late because he was trying to think of loopholes that would make this situation more fair for us.  These were his options:

If 2 students fail this paper anyways, then no one else's grades will have to move, so you will end up with the grade you earn. The first option is to take the 2 students with the highest grades in the class and give them the F's. 

At this point, several students looked at me, a few making guns in my direction with their fingers, others just looking very sorry. Now I was pretty furious.

Now I'm not going to make you write the paper if I am just going to fail you, but my reasoning behind this option is this- if you have an A in my class right now and fail this paper, you will complete the class with a C+.  Assuming you have similar grades in your other classes, and this is your first semester, you have plenty of time to make up for one C+.  Now the other option is to fail the 2 students with the lowest grades, because if you have a D in this class, you should probably retake this class anyways.  So I'm going to leave it up to you guys.  Do you want to fail the top 2 students, the bottom 2 students, or just stick with the reverse curve and take whatever grade you end up with?

Frankly, we weren't ok with any of these options.  We tried to figure out who the top and bottom 2 students were, but no one knew their exact grades in the class.  We tried to find an alternate assignment for those who failed to do instead, but Brother Shaffer said that the English department would get him in trouble for doing that.  In the end we decided to see if anyone would be willing to take the F, and 3 girls volunteered.  (It felt a bit like the Hunger Games...) Brother Shaffer had each girl explain why they were willing to take the F.  Each girl gave their explanation and we decided we would vote on what to do.  As we were about to vote, I realized that we had forgotten to start class with a prayer, and asked if we could do that before we decided to fail 2 students.  Brother Shaffer said that was a good idea, and then asked me in whose name we pray.  I said we pray in the name of Christ.  He said:

Correct.  Well, Christ took your F for you.  None of this was real, you can all take a deep breath now.

As relieved as we were, it was hard not to be mad at Brother Shaffer for the agony he just put us through, but the lesson behind this activity was one that is important for all of us to remember.  In this situation, we had a choice as to whether or not someone would suffer and fail the final paper so that we could all get the grade we worked for, and we were about to allow that to happen.  As guilty as we may have felt, we were selfish enough to make 2 students retake English 101 so that we could get a "fair" grade. Brother Shaffer had us think about how we felt a second ago when we realized that 2 of the sisters in our class were going to pay the price and fail so that we could succeed.  I thought of the debt I owed them, the gratitude I felt for them, the respect I had for them, and how I would do my absolute best on that paper so that their suffering would not be in vain.  Then we talked about how we could apply this to the Atonement.  Christ already paid the ultimate price so that we could have a fair chance here on Earth.  He didn't just take an F on a paper, He gave everything. He felt every pain, every sorrow, every feeling of guilt we have ever felt and ever will feel.  When I thought of this in comparison to the debt and gratitude I felt toward the girls in my class, I realized that I owe everything I have to my Savior and it is my responsibility to take full advantage of the opportunity I have here on Earth because of my Savior.  His suffering is in vain if we don't use the Atonement every minute of every day.  We have the chance to have eternal happiness because of Him, because He loves us more than we can possibly imagine.  Because of Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter how many times we screw up and fall down, we can always get back up again.  I hope all of you remember that sacrifice He made for us, especially during this season of Thanksgiving.  I am so grateful for His Atonement that allows me to try again every time I mess up.  I am grateful to know that I am never alone because my Savior understands exactly how I feel.  No matter how bad things get, He has felt the same sorrows we feel and knows exactly what we need to make it through.  I don't know how people go their entire life without knowing about their Savior, so I guess this is just my way of trying to let everyone know that He lives.

D&C 76:22-24 And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father- That by him, and through him, and of him the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God. 

Now on a little less serious note, the rest of my week was pretty fun!  I think the highlight of my week was decorating for Christmas.  I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but we got a little impatient, so as soon as the lights and snowflakes came out, I just went all out.

Also, Nahiomi and I got to go teach 2 lessons with the Sister Missionaries and it was a bit crazy getting there, but it was an amazing experience! I don't want to bore you with details, but it made me so excited to serve my mission in less than a year!  I hope you all have a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving and eat your little hearts out!! I miss everyone at home so much and I can't wait to see you all in less than a month!! Hugs and kisses! (:

Surprise!!!

Before if go into all the details about my fantastical weekend, I just have to mention that it snowed again in Rexburg! Except this time it actually stuck to the ground. And here's how I felt about that...

Next, on Wednesday my dad called me at 6:30am Idaho time with a crazy idea. He found a flight from Salt Lake City to Milwaukee and wanted to know if I could miss my Friday classes to come out for the BYU vs Wisconsin football game. I hesitantly decided I guess I could skip class... (; But I had to keep it a secret. So Thursday night I drove down to Logan, UT and spent the night with my grandparents so that I could make it to my 7:20 flight in Salt Lake and they told me that they were also surprising everyone by going to Wisconsin, but I couldn't tell anyone. SO MANY SECRETS! Well I can't get the video of the surprise to upload...so I'll just try to tell you all how it went. Basically my mom was super confused for about 3 seconds and then just freaked out. Meanwhile, my brothers were running around the parking garage so they hadn't seen me yet. They ran around the corner and both just froze. Adam ran over and hugged me and Ben was still frozen. He stood there for a good minute trying to wrap his mind around what just happened. I think he's still a little bit confused (; So that was fun! Then we went to the mall and loaded up on Wisconsin gear for the game and I partied a little bit (;

That night we went out to dinner with my dad's brother and his family to have our traditional Friday night Fish Fry. It was delicious as always, and we had a blast as always! Later on the BYU football team also had a devotional and afterwards we got to meet some of the football players. My sister was quite disappointed to find out that one of the cute ones was married...and she told him too!

This is #3 Colby Pearson (not married). I called dibs (;

Saturday morning we went to the prettiest place in Madison, Picnic Point, and then to the best ice cream shop in America- Babcock Hall. It was freezing outside, but I still enjoyed every bite of my Orange Custard Chocolate Chip (:

 

Finally it was game time! The Badgers did beat BYU 27-17! I would have been content with either team winning, but I am glad the Badgers won (:

Jared, Brooklyn, and Bella got to dance on the stage with Bucky during the tailgate

My dad's best friend growing up and his family were there too. I hadn't seen his daughter, Maddie, in probably 6 or 7 years! 

The sea of red in the Camp Randall Stadium

Finally, we went to church on Sunday morning and then had to say goodbye. I miss all the crazy little kids already! And the free Otis Spunkemeyer cookies from the hotel... (;

The lovely girls!

The handsome men!

And all the kids plus Grandma and Grandpa Norton (;

The lovely sunset in the Denver airport (:

I am SO grateful for the chance I had to see my family, especially because I might not see some of them again before I leave on my mission next year. I absolutely love Rexburg, but I definitely needed a break even if it was just for a couple of days. I love that even though we don't all see each other that often, as soon as we are together, it's like we never left. No matter what happens or where life takes you, family is always there!

Halfway There!

This week was the official midterm which means I'm halfway done! It seems like it's gone by so fast but so slow at the same time! I don't even know what to think honestly. Also, I apologize in advance, I don't have anything that interesting to post this week but I know my dad will be mad if I don't blog (; So last weekend this guy, Brooks, from the Bachelor came to Rexburg! Don't ask me why he came to Rexburg of all places, but he did. I never watched the show but Lauren and Nahiomi did and they said he was cute so I figured why not go? He was at this store right down the street and let me tell you, he is quite handsome! We met him and took pictures with him and then he kissed me! On the cheek...but still, I'd say that's a pretty big deal!

Also, Stirling's sister finally had her baby boy yesterday! I screamed when I got the news haha. It's just so crazy to me that someone I went to seminary with is married and has a baby now! And let me tell you, he is so CUTE!! I know Camden and David will be amazing parents and I seriously can't wait to meet little baby Will! I miss babies out here. I see them everywhere but I don't get to interact with them like I could at home. I mean I guess I could just go over and start talking to some girl's kid but that might freak her out a little...so I'm definitely looking forward to playing with kids again when I get home (especially Will) (;

As some of you may have gathered from my recent tweets and instagram posts, I still miss home a little bit haha. Don't get me wrong, this is an amazing school and I do love it here, I just wish it wasn't so dang far away! It also doesn't help that we don't get a fall break...oh well. I'm just used to knowing everyone I see and just being comfortable in Fishers, but it's just so unfamiliar here still which is completely new to me. And I'm also still adjusting to the whole "taking care of myself" thing. I have to do my own laundry, make my own decisions, pay the bill when I eat out, and make my own dinner (well, mostly...shout out to my mom who made me a bunch of freezer meals before she left!) So I've had to do a lot of praying to get used to all of this, and I've definitely been blessed with a lot of people to help me out. My roommates are amazing and my FHE brothers are always there and even my Bishop from home called to check up on me, which was exactly what I needed that day. Bishop Jensen is honestly the most inspired man I know. He is SO in-tune with the Spirit and I hope I can be as great as him one day. So if any of you are struggling right now, these two quotes always have help me push through it when I'm having a rough time. Just keep on praying and I promise it will get better! It always does (:

Harry Potter nerd coming out here...don't mind the fact that I spelled Dumbledore wrong...oops!

I miss this song every day...

A Few of My Favorite Things

Favorite thing #1: 

Cupcakes! We have had a lot of crap food in room 103 lately...first it was Lauren's birthday last Friday! (there's 2 more of my favorite things: Lauren and birthdays!) So I made red velvet cupcakes for her birthday and they were so tasty (: I can't take credit though cuz they were from a box...whatevs! Then this Wednesday I was having a really rough day and I was just super homesick and stuff and so I was going to bed early. So I was saying my prayers before bed and I asked for someone to reach out to me cuz I was feeling lonely and as soon as I finished someone knocked on the door and it was my friend John from church. He said he felt like we were just having a bad week so he thought he would bring us some cupcakes! I've felt a lot better since then. It just reminded me that Heavenly Father is always looking out for us even if we feel like we're on our own (:

Favorite thing #2: 

Running! Hahahahahahahahaha....ha...yeah kidding. I hope you all got a good laugh out of that one (; But there was a Glow Run 5k thing on Lauren's birthday so we decided to do it! Well...we walked the whole time but it was still fun! And really cold...another one of my favorite things (not). I'm pretty sure we came in last place...oh well! We had fun being really loud and annoying the whole time.

Favorite thing #3: 

Weddings! Last Saturday we went down to Idaho Falls to find Haley a wedding dress and we found one! I can't post it thought because that's top secret! (; But she looked so perfect in the dress and it was like in the movies where everyone just knew it was her dress (: I'm so excited for her to be marry Vincent. They are just so dang cute together!

Favorite thing #4: 

Puppies! Now don't get me wrong, I will always love kittens the most, but these puppies were precious! There was a family selling them in a parking lot and they were the most calm little puppies I had ever seen! Too bad we aren't allowed to have pets in our apartment. Plus they were a little over our budget...only $500.

Favorite thing #5: 

Holidays! Although Halloween isn't at the top of my Holiday list, I'll take what I can get! On Monday night we carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening and if you ask me, my pumpkin was pretty awesome (; Who knew pumpkins could be cannibals?? Well, now you know!

Favorite thing #6: 

Singing! As you know, we have Devotionals every Tuesday here at BYU-I and there is a special musical number at each Devotional. And since I'm in choir, we got to sing at Devotional this week! I was a little nervous because I'm not exactly in the greatest choir on campus, but it went so much better than I thought it would go! Here is a link to the Devotional. You can watch the whole Devotional if you'd like, but the musical number starts at 7:38. I also had quite the view from up on the stage!

Favorite thing #7:

Surprises! Specifically candy surprises (: Lauren is just the greatest roommate ever. I went to leave a note on her pillow before bed and right after I did that, I pulled down the sheets on my bed and there was candy waiting for me! So she beat me on that one (; Quick little shout-out to Lauren, she is seriously the sweetest person ever! She always knows how to make everyone smile and is such a great example. I just love her (:

Favorite thing #8:

Parties! Last night we got invited to go Roller Skating in Idaho Falls...dressed like we were from the 70's. I have to admit, I was not too thrilled about the 70's theme at first, but it ended up being really fun! I can finally say that I have more than 5 friends in Rexburg! Woohoo!! I also won the Roller Skating Limbo contest and got a free soda! Woohoo again! I have to say, we looked pretty groovy (;

Favorite thing #9:

Last, but definitely not least, the Rexburg Temple! I am so incredibly lucky to live 2 minutes away from a temple of the Lord.  On Thursday (the day after the bad day) I went to the temple in between classes and just walked around outside and read my patriarchal blessing. It's so amazing how you can feel the blessings from the temple without even going inside! I have felt SO much better since then (: I still miss home and it's still hard, but I know that everything is in Heavenly Father's hands and that He will only give me trials that I can handle so that I can become stronger and better than I am now. 

"Always have the temple in your sights."

-Thomas S. Monson