25 Signs You Go to BYU-Idaho

1. You've complained at least 10x about the track you were put on.

2. You've never had to experience the freshman dorm life.

3.  It's totally normal to start class with a prayer...in a foreign language.

4.  If you're a girl with a mission call, your dating life is practically nonexistent.

5.  You have mastered the art of the "ring check"

6.  You have to drive 40 minutes to get to a mall, Target, Noodles & Co, Buffalo Wild Wings, Olive Garden...and pretty much any form of civilization.

7.  Tuesdays are the best days because everyone dresses up and looks fiiiiine.

8.  You'll never have frat brothers or sorority sisters, but you have FHE brothers and sisters so that's pretty much the same thing, right?

9.  Your biggest complaint about your school is that there aren't real sports.

10.  You feel like a rebel when you roll up your jeans to show your ankles.

11.  "Welcome to another great day at BYU-Idaho"

12.  You read #11 in President Clark's voice.

13.  The equivalent of a trip to the beach is driving down to the Sandbar.

14.  11:58pm is practically rush hour.

15.  Fall, Winter, and Spring semesters should be renamed Winter 1, Winter 2, and Summer semesters.

16.  If you have Fall/Spring track, you have a memorized speech of why you're home for 4 months in the middle of the year.

17.  Walking to the Ricks in the winter is practically a death sentence.

18.  Not only is it not frowned upon to be 21 and married and pregnant, but it's encouraged.

19.  You've been fined more for jaywalking or texting in a crosswalk than for parking illegally.

20.  You call your professors "Brother _______" and "Sister _______"

21.  You know that Rexburg has the coolest clouds ever. Period.

22.  You know what CTR, LDS, SLC, FHE, NCMO, and DTR all stand for.

23.  You get a grade for reading your scriptures.

24.  You probably go to BYU-Idaho because you didn't get into BYU-Provo, but now you realize that BYU-Idaho is highly underrated.

25.  You freaking love Rexburg, but as soon as you graduate, you're out of here.

Time is Flyin!

Well, this week wasn't the most exciting so I don't have a ton to write about, but I'll try to make it interesting haha.  On Tuesday night Lauren and I decided to go see The Fault in Our Stars.  Talk about a cry fest! It was so good, but so depressing at the same time haha.

Then on Wednesday I had a killer migraine so I literally stayed in bed till 1:30.  It would have been pretty nice if it weren't for the migraine part haha.  But it did really make me appreciate my health and modern medicine.  If it weren't for modern medicine, I would pretty much have a never-ending migraine all the time.

Then on Saturday we were kind of pigs...haha. Our ward had a Relief Society activity in the morning and we had waffles there, then we went to this place called the Hickory for lunch and it was really good! They put their drinks in little mason jars and it's so cute haha.  

Thennnn for dinner Maddie invited us to go get Chinese food with her for dinner, and it was pretty good.  But the best part was when Lauren told Maddie and I to pose for a picture and this is what happened...but I had no idea hahaha.

I don't even know...

Also, Lauren got me into watching the Bachelorette. It's so addictive!! Haha I think I'm in love with like 3 guys on the show...and for anyone who watches the show, those 3 guys would be Brian, Josh, and Nick. But mostly Brian... (: So we've been watching the Bachelorette in our apartment complex's theater room and it's been pretty sweet.

We get cray when we watch the Bachelorette

On Sunday we decided to go to the park and act like children cuz why not?

Oh and we ate cupcakes cuz we (obviously) like food.

And finally, on Monday afternoon our FHE brothers invited us to go watch the US v. Ghana game and I'm so glad I went.  It made me love my school even more.  So many students in red, white, and blue!

'Merica.

So that was pretty much my week! I also got a letter from my future Mission President yesterday, and it's making everything seem so real! Yesterday marked 100 days until I report to the MTC. I'm so excited! But at the same time, it's making me realize that I don't have that much time left here in Idaho, which is sad because I've grown to really love it here.  I've decided that Idaho is highly underrated, cuz it's a pretty sweet place.  

Well, have a great week everyone! Do something nice for someone today (:

Love you all!

Coley

Love the Life you Live

First of all, sorry I didn't post anything last weekend (mostly just sorry to my Mom and Dad cuz I don't think anyone else cares haha).  There really wasn't anything interesting to talk about except my choir concert, which was awesome, but that was seriously the only interesting thing. Luckily, this week was MUCH more interesting, so here we go!

During the week I learned that I'm pretty good at winning free stuff, which is a pretty nice skill to have when you're in college with no money haha.  On Monday after FHE I won free churros from Taco Bell (shoutout so Stirling for teaching me how) and the a few days later on I won a free giant ice cream cone from Dairy Queen and let me just say, everything tastes 10x better when it's free.

My coin dropping skills at Taco Bell

My coin catching skills at DQ

The fruits (or ice creams..) of my labors

Also, my choir sang in Devotional this week and I absolutely LOVE the song we sang.  You can click here to watch us sing.  We start singing right around 8 minutes and 20 seconds.  Being a part of Collegiate Singers has been such an amazing experience so far, and we still have so much left to do.  I'm learning and growing so much, not just musically, but spiritually.  Almost all of our music this semester has been gospel related and it truly is the highlight of every day to be able to sing beautiful music with such amazing people.  One thing that I will always remember that Brother Kempton reminds us of before every performance is that we are singing to 3 different audiences: the people sitting in the audience, each other, and most importantly our Heavenly Father.  He listens to us every time we make music and it is our duty as musicians to not just sing with our voices, but also with our hearts.  When every member of the choir does this, the Spirit in the room is incredible.

Alrighty now for the fun stuff.  On Friday night my favorite Miss Kenz Hall came up to BYUI to do a show and she was amazing as always.  She was opening for a band called the Truman Brothers.  I didn't really know anything about them before but they were super good!  Lauren and I were sitting in the front row so we had a pretty good view of the guys and the first thing we noticed was that all the guys in the band were very good looking.  The second thing we noticed was that they were all wearing wedding rings...so that was stupid. But the concert was still awesome so it's ok!  Also funny little story, when I was talking to Kenz after the show she told me that she got honor coded when she got here! She was gonna wear shorts for the concert but they made her go buy pants! Apparently the honor code applies even if you don't go here haha.

Ok now things get a little bit crazy. After the concert, I went with a big group of people from my apartment complex and played this game called "Fugitive".  I don't know if you've heard of it, but I didn't know what it was so I'll explain.  There are two groups of people: the "fugitives", and the "cops".  The fugitives have to start at a certain location (ours was the movie theater) and sneak across town to another location (the park) without getting caught by the cops who are driving around town.  I got to go in one of the cop cars and it was so fun!  We caught 10 fugitives (most cars didn't find any) and we felt like we were in a James Bond movie.  I definitely need to play again sometime and play as a fugitive.

But wait, there's more! On Saturday Lauren and I went with the same group of people to this place called Fun Farm Bridge.

So if you can't tell from the picture, you jump off the bridge into a river! Super safe and logical right? But hey, I could be doing stupider things in college.  When I went I didn't plan on jumping, I was just gonna watch everyone else and get some sun.  But sure enough, I gave in to the peer pressure jumped!  I was still kind of a wuss and only jumped from the ground of the bridge, not the part where you have to climb up, but it was a good 15 feet.  And the water was freezing.  Like can't breathe can't talk body-in-shock cold.  The jump itself was not the worst part.  Trying to swim back while fighting the current and freezing your freaking butt off was the worst part haha.  But I still want to go back sometime when it's hotter and jump off the high part.

Not one person chickened out!

Before the jump

The jump

After the jump

Miranda and I like to pretend we're "Miranda sings"

Also while we were at Fun Farm, there was a moose on the loose!!  He was just swimmin around in the river like it was no big deal and he was huge. So we were all just chillin watchin the moose and then he got out of the water and started to chase this girl! It was freakin hilarious! Don't worry she got away and the moose went back into the woods or something, but it was just super weird.  I've never seen a moose and I didn't know moose could swim and apparently they're very deadly so it's a good thing that girl got away.  We also found a snake when Lauren and I were getting out of the water after jumping.  It was eating a frog and it was super freaky, so naturally the guys picked it up.  I held it and now we're buddies. We spoke parseltongue to each other and he said I'm his best friend so...yeah.

MOOSE ON THE LOOSE!

Hasss shiahh saangatah ahh hayaaaa siethhh

And now the last part.  I'm almost done I promise! Saturday night we went to this place called the Teton Dam Spillway and blew stuff up haha.  I was kinda freaking out at first cuz on the way my gas light came on and then we started driving down this dirt road for like 20 minutes and then we got to the place and it was like an empty abandoned dam and my phone had died, so I figured I was probably gonna run out of gas or get kidnapped or something.  But it was actually pretty fun!  And if you haven't had a s'more made with Reese's peanut butter cups, I highly recommend it.

Our sketchy bonfire

So there ya go! I finally have interesting stuff to put on my blog!  I'm glad I'm finally making new friends and going (way) out of my comfort zone!  I'm getting better at focusing on the good things happening in my life and less on the bad things and it's so great!  There really are so many things to be happy about no matter what's going on in your life.  If you keep your eye out for the Lord's tender mercies I promise you will see so many and you will be so much happier!  Also, Grant just told me I need to put this in my blog: "Cutie Hannah paint your toenails!" haha.  I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!!

Life's What You Make It

So let's make it ROCK!

Sorry for the Hannah Montana reference...it just worked. Anyways, life has been pretty good lately! I kinda realized that if I want to have fun and be happy, I can't just sit around and wait for great things to happen to me, I have to put myself out there and just HAVE FUN! One of the biggest things I think we can learn to do is to create our own happiness.  Bad things are going to happen and there's really nothing we can do about it.  Life sucks sometimes! But we can still learn to find the good things in every day.  For me, I'm lucky enough to have a temple that I can see every day as I'm walking to classes and that is my little reminder that life is such a blessing! So even if you don't have a temple that you can see all the time, find something to be your little reminder of how blessed you are.  Maybe it's a little note in your car or a picture in your room or a CTR ring.  It doesn't matter what it is, just find something! Once you can start thinking of your blessings as much as, and then even more than, your problems and trials, life becomes so much sweeter! 

Anyways, that's my two cents on being happy. Now here are some of the things I did this week that made me happy!

On Thursday night, Lauren and I decided we'd done enough homework for the week (don't worry we finished it) and needed to just GET OUT. So we went to this little block party that a new apartment complex was having and it wasn't the most exciting party, but we made it fun! Plus, anything is more fun than homework, right?  We got to go on a limo ride around the block which was pretty sweet.

They also had a pretty awesome photo booth at the party so of course we had to take advantage because who doesn't want to go hiking/canoeing/camping in flippers?

I also totally conquered that rock wall, just saying... (;

So now for the real fun part. I promise I do love Rexburg and I'm not just trying to escape every weekend haha.  But we had a long weekend and I had to take advantage of the fact that half of my dad's family only lives 2 1/2 hours away!  And let me tell you, it was so worth the drive! I love my family so much! My grandpa is one of the most spiritual people I have ever met.  He knows so much about the gospel and is so close to the Savior.  And then my grandma is just the sweetest lady ever!  I swear it's physically impossible to be hungry when she's around, and she never complains about anything.  Whatever anyone asks her to do it, she'll do it with a smile.  I'm so blessed to have such amazing grandparents on both sides of my family!  I also got to spend time with my dad's sister, Dianna, and her family.  I love Dianna (aka Aunti Di). She's my dad's youngest sister and she is such an amazing example to me of someone who is strong, hard-working, loving, positive, and patient.  I always look forward to spending time with her, and it's even more fun now that she has to ADORABLE little girls that I get to play with. 

  

Lucy and Ruby are my little miracle cousins.  They were born about 2 months early, so it's extra special to get to see them grow and become happy, healthy big girls.  They have the most contagious laughs and sweetest smiles ever.  It's so fun to see how different twins can be.  

Lucy is very thoughtful and always wants to observe everything whether it's flowers, birds, sand, or your face.  She almost always has a very concentrated look on her face and it just cracks me up! I wish I could hear what she was thinking about sometimes.  

Miss Ruby is a little more carefree and loves to laugh.  She isn't quite as comfortable as Lucy when it comes to walking, so she always wanted to hold my finger when had somewhere to go.  Also, both girls love to cuddle with people and stuffed animals, which I think is the most adorable thing in the world.  There were a few moments where I just wanted to freeze time with those precious little girls.  Who needs school when you can play with babies all day??

Then today it was back to Idaho again, but I got to have a little more fun before I went all the way back to Rexburg.  We all drove up to Preston, ID (home of Napoleon Dynamite) where my grandparents grew up and we brought flowers to their parents' and grandparents' graves.  I only got to meet one of my great-grandparents on my dad's side of the family, but I'm so glad to know that families are forever and that I will get to meet all of my ancestors one day.

And finally, what's a trip to Preston without lunch at Big J's?

So that's basically how my week went! Every week has its ups and downs, but I'm just learning to focus on the good things and I'm so much happier when I do that.  I'm sure that's pretty much common sense, but it's so much easier said than done! So I'll just end with a little happy reminder (: