Tremonton Bound

I haven't posted anything for a few weeks. I feel like I have gotten into a routine that is fairly boring. Which is totally and completely fine by me. I like coming home and taking my daily nap, eating lunch, and then doing my homework. College takes a lot out of you :) The past two weekends I have come home!.. Weird I know. I have gotten a lot of questions like "so ya quit college already" or "you really are homesick" or just dumb things like that. Ha I will clarify for all of you to know, I just came home for the heck of it. The first weekend was a total surprise to my family and basically everyone. Rylee convinced me to come home with her, so I skipped out on my last class and came home! It was nice surprising my family... ha I think they kinda missed me a little. It was fun to catch up, watch jay play in some ball games, and go grocery shopping at the expense of my mama's wallet. Saying goodbye wasn't really to sad because I knew I'd be back home in 5 short days to listen to one of my friends farewell talks...
This is a little off topic, but just super random and funny and anyone that knows me knows that it is so true. Alright, so I love love love going to sporting events. Cheering for my team, and well sometimes against the other team. A group of friends decided to go get some free dinner, and go watch the volleyball game. Well will just say no one was there to tell us to be nice, or keep us in line, and we definitely were not super nice :) ha I loved it! .. We were sitting there making fun of a girl that was beyond crazy, and even ended up on our SUU confession website,  when someone was like "goll I wish we knew her name?" so the crazy person that I am, and well was in high school pulled out my nifty iphone and was all over there roster. We picked that poor girl apart. I guess the joys you get for being an athlete right!
I drove coming home this very past weekend, and I must say "cedar is a long, far drive" no but really it is. I had a car full of us anxious college students that just wanted to get home. Safely we arrived in Tremonton. I went to the football game, where I tried, and I think successfully hid from people. After the game I was able to catch up with a friend that is getting ready to go on a mission. It was so good to talk, and hang out, and remember the memories one last time before she heads off. Saturday was spent helping my grandpa, and watching more ball games. I was a little crazy on Sunday I went to Shandee's farewell, where she did amazing, and then skipped over to my ward to tell my family goodbye, and ended up visiting with my Park family for a few minutes and catching up, and... eventually getting on the road to come back to Cedar!
I'd be lying if I said college hasn't sucked! Me and Rylee have spent a lot of days, planning how next year were gonna just go to Utah State and live in Logan where were close to home just because it is so far away, but I feel like now its getting better. I love going to school, well for the most part, and I love all of these new crazy things I'm learning! I feel like every day I am changing and growing, and attempting at making plans for the future, which never seem to stay the same, and really and truly be happy! I heard the first month is the worst, so the rest is gonna be a blast! I think it took me coming back home to realize, there really is nothing in Tremonton for me, and my life has just begun! Heres to the future, and a whole bunch of fun times ahead! Keep Smiling my friends:) Love you!

SUNDAY FUNDAY :)

CAUTION: This is all about CHURCH... continue reading at your own risk!!... and enjoy! 

Sunday, the college students of SUU, and  YSA had the opportunity of listening to Elder Ronald A. Rasband, Bishop Gerald Causse, Sister Ruth Leavitt, and also Elder D. Todd Christofferson. The morning started at 6:30, because we had to be in our seats by 7:40, and well we wanted a good seat so we got there early. Although the meeting was early, and exhausting it was truly amazing! I felt so blessed to be able to hear teachings, and words of encouragement from these church leaders. It kind of made me feel like I could continue on at college with out failing.. at least for the time being :)

Elder Rasband gave a short and simple talk. He talked about how strong the youth are today. (side note.. It made me feel good to still be called a youth) He told us to make sure we could always be found standing in holy places. He talked a lot about how blessed we were to be getting a temple amongst us. Which brought back a lot of memories of the Brigham City Temple being built, and the service that went into that. It makes me excited to see another one go up so close to me as well!.. His end quote that stood out to me was "make the temple a destination place for you". This touched me and gave me a whole bunch of other crazy thoughts as well. While I am on this crazy adventure, no matter what happens with school or life my main goal has to be to get there, and definitely to find a man that will take me there... in the future.. (another side note, don't expect this happening soon :)

Bishop Gerald Causse basically talked for a few minutes on whats happening in the church today, and how strong and righteous it is growing to be. He emphasized the reason behind this was because of the Youth of the church and the decisions to serve missions, and to follow the prophet and the teachings they have set. He talked about being a missionary without the name badge, and said something that was super cool as well.. " Be busy in the work, there is always someone that needs you" This is so true, and I have learned this even more I think moving away from home. I can pick up the phone and call a number of people and know that they will be there for me, so I need to make sure and return the favor and always be looking to serve others, even if it is just my roommates or friends.  

Sister Leavitt talked about being willing to do the small things, and the impact they can be on someones life. I can truly testify to this. I felt like my senior year I had many friends and family members doing little things on a daily basis just to keep me going. Now that I have made it through that challenge I am so grateful for these people, and the little things they would do to make me feel loved, or to put a smile on my face. I don't think these people truly realize the impact they had on my life, even if at the time I didn't see it.  Sister Leavitt also challenged us to act on the small words of Christ. I truly thing the little things, become the bigs things and thats what really matters most. 

Elder Christofferson got up and said, "I bet you can all guess what I am going to talk on... Marriage" ... and then said just kidding. :) it was really funny, and a good ice breaker start to a YSA devotional.  His main topic was bringing forth Zion. He emphasized that the way that we could bring forth zion, was with us becoming righteous ourself. He challenged us to "lay down our weapons of wickedness" and walk toward Christ. He would be able to help us with the little things as well as the big things. 

It was such an uplifting meeting! It came at a time in my life when I needed to here it, and it definitely strengthened my testimony!

Because of the devotional they pushed church back an hour.... don't worry at 11:30 my little brother/mama was checking in on me and wondering why I wasn't at church, please obviously they don't know me :).. haha I came home from the devotional ate some breakfast and went to sleep until I went to church. Church is always a crazy experience in a YSA ward. I love it :)... and although I didn't really want to go because I had already been in a meeting for two hours, and had lots of studying to be doing I am glad I did. 

There was also a CES fireside given by Elder Russell M. Nelson. It was broadcasted from Hawaii, and he kept referring to how amazing it was there making us all jealous of him, but his talk was amazing. I feel like I have gone on enough about all of the talks and things that I have learned, but one thing specifically that he said that touched me was, "As you choose to live on God's side of the line, you are never alone". I think this finally clarified to me what "the line" <inside joke> is, and definitely how to stay happy!

I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! :) 

Keep on keeping on my friends, you're amazing!!! 

        

Thank heavens for the weekend :)

... Go back to Friday :)

I felt like on Friday the work load was piling up. My professors just seemed to be going and going like the energizer bunny, and I was running out of life. I felt like I was literally going to flunk out of college.. Stupid I know right... Rylee came over and we were just kind of hanging around until I was going to meet up with Landon in the library to get a chapter copied out of one of my textbooks that I needed. We were trying to plan our Friday night out, which was turning into a depressing day. Spur of the moment I turn to her and say "lets go to St. George" ... So I headed to the library to hurry and get my textbook situation accomplished, and she ran home to get one of her roommates to bring with us!.. I can definitely say that was probably a good choice! I needed to get out of Cedar and do something that didn't involve stress. Although our trip was short, it was a lot of fun! We did some serious window shopping, enjoyed dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and met up with some friends from Bear River that are going to school down there! ... and of course go to SWIG!

Me and Landon supporting the Flannel Friday tradition for Logan!.. I must say it looked good on SUU!  We decided to snap a quick pic for Mama Tina so that she could see how cute we were! 

 For any of my friends that read this blog, that has never been to Swig in St. George.. GO!!!! It is absolutely amazing, from all of there crazy drink choices, to these amazing cookies... There is just nothing like it:) .. and they definitely helped with the freshmen 15!

 Im pretty sure all I did on Friday was eat, but ya know sometimes its the best way to get rid of negative energy and enjoy the moment!

 Sometimes you just have to say the heck with homework, even if you have hours and hours, and just put it on the back burner and do something fun! College is crazy stressful, and all though this was probably poor time management, and not good use of studying... We did it anyway! Especially sense Cedar has been having such crappy weather!

.. :) Girls Trip!... 

I told myself because I had such a fun trip Friday, and I did zero studying, that Saturday would be spent doing just that. It's hard to get motivation to study because it's not like I have homework I do my homework, but its like know this information forwards, backwards, upside down, ect... College is lots different from high school!... So I let myself sleep in on Saturday till 10 got up and scrubbed my bathroom... Yes mother I cleaned my bathroom :)... Me and one of my roommates kind of have the same cleaning habits/ hygienic habits... and well needless to say one of my roommates doesn't quite understand. So we started leaving little notes around and its gotten a little bit better. So after my bathroom was scrubbed I hit the books.... I studied for 5 hours straight!!!!... Thats a long time:)

Oh ya know just hanging in the library on a Saturday afternoon... that tells you how awesome I really am!... I told myself if I got all of this studying accomplished then I would go to the football game.. So at 4:30 I packed up and headed home to get ready! :)

The football game was umm... weird! :) They would do cheers like come on big red lets go.. and automatically me and Rylee would just look at each other and go this is not right. Well after it was 41-0 us in the first half we got bored and left. We were gonna go to the paint dance after, but it was pouring rain, so we opted out of that. Came back to my apartment, and just hung out.. We knew Sunday was going to be a long day so they headed home, and I went to bed early.. ish :)

Some interesting adventures :)

Week two is almost in the books, and as I sit here bored I decided sense this week has kind of been a crazy one, that I would maybe do a blog post now, and then one probably on Sunday as well. I really like this whole documenting my college life. It makes me feel like even though I'm so far away from home, my friends and my family can still be here with me and enjoy this new journey a long with me. 

I love how we only go to school for a week, the worst week ever, and then they reward us by giving us a day off. This year I spent my Labor Day doing something I wouldn't ever of even thought of doing if it wasn't for some new friends, and us being so close to such an amazing place. I had the opportunity to hike up Observation Point Trail in Zion. Well it definitely wasn't like anything I ever expected, it surely was a good time and a great way to spend a day off of school!

The hike was a total of 8 miles. At times I felt like it was trek all over again, and I just wanted to shoot myself in the head and turn around! A lot of times though we would see old  people coming down the mountain, and all I thought was holy if they can make it to the top I better freaking be able too! 

Oh ya know, I figured sense I never had done this before I'd get in some pictures. Im pretty sure we also hiked it in the hottest part of the day, no worries I needed the work out!

The whole group! :) 

 I absolutely loved it, even if my legs were completely dead tired, and soar for a few days!!! 

Having motivation to go to school was hard on Tuesday. My alarm had went off and I had hit snooze probably 5 times,  no joke... but my favorite, well one of my favorite things about college is the fact that I really don't have to get ready. People go to class all the time in there sweats, and t's, so I basically jumped on that bandwagon and rocked the athletic shorts with my t bird shirt.. I definitely hit the requirement of college student. After my one class on Tuesday.... So so tough :) I basically caught up on life and school... ect the end with tuesday it was basically lame...

While deciding what to bring at college and what to leave at home, I made a good choice by bringing my basketball shoes. I hadn't played ball, stepped into a gym, or even considered playing. After much prodding by some friends, I put on the shoes and went and played. Holy cow, was it fun! I think I forgot for a little while, or a long time why I even started playing basketball, but it definitely came to me in the gym. It was definitely street ball, and whole bunch of guys and only a few girls.. I must say we girls held our own, and dominated!... I already have myself a nick name... The crazy baller from bear river :)! These people didn't know who I was as an athlete, or even my background so it was kind of nice to just start fresh and kind of make a name for myself in a sense. It was nice to finally feel like I was good at it again. I don't that was just a random food for thought kind of paragraph!

I have decided at college my least favorite thing in the whole wide world is food!!!.. I knew I liked to eat when I was at home, but that was really never a problem. There was always, although I maybe thought not, there was always food to eat. I had to go grocery shopping, because I physically had nothing to eat... In a way.:) Oh and now I have realized that I spend 90% of my time eating.. I seriously need to take up a hobby that doesn't involve food, because well its freaking expensive :)!!!

I can't even begin to count how many times I went to taco time during high school. It was kind of like, well whats for lunch, taco time duh... well now that college has started I have decided that, even though i do love me a good sweet pork burrito, I would rather spend my money else where. Today, being the awesome person that I am, I cooked lunch for me and Rylee... needless to say I am a champ, and we made it through yet another meal. 

Yes, we have ourselves some Mac and Cheese, with salt and pepper, some deal pickle chips, and yes the famous Maverik drinks!!!... Although, the maverick runs were something that you could say, was a tradition in high school, we have continued to keep them going at college.. They are a reward you could say for making it through another day as a poor picked on college student. 

This picture was taken specifically for our friends in the counseling center back in tremonton.. :) hope you're jealous, and missing us!!!! ... and our daily maverik runs/ taco time visits/ bring you food whenever you want... :)

To our Mama Kim and our Favorite Counselor ever... (Ms. Biggs thats you)  Love you two!! Don't be having to much fun in the counseling center now that we're gone, and also well that one person is gone as well!!! 

You all probably by now have lost interest but thats alright, thats the one good thing about the internet, this is never going away :)... if you're bored and not interested it will always be here tomorrow, or whenever:)... 

One last thing... I have been a little sad in my room right... its boring I only have a few pictures, and random things, so I have been trying to be as creative as possible, and also find things on pinterest... that our INEXPENSIVE, because I am a poor college student, without a job.... but this is the latest and greatest that is hanging on my wall.. its lame I know, but kind of a need, hopefully it will help me stay organized and keep up to date with little notes, and things that I should remember and prepare for!

..... Keep smiling my friends :) I love you!!! 

1 week down!

It's official.. I have been a resident of Cedar City for ONE whole week!!!... Last Sunday as I was sitting in my bed trying to get out all of the freshmen jitters I just told myself if I could make it through Monday I would be okay, and now its turned into just make it through each day. Good things have happened, and some not so good things have happened! Luckily I am blessed with awesome roommates. Although there is supposed to be 6 of us living here, there is only four which is kinda nice, and one of them is hardly ever home... They are all a few years older then me, so Im kinda like the nube and get teased and stuff, but thats alright I'm learning.. Luckily I have some good friends from home that I have been able to hang out with and kinda keep me from being super lonely while I start to find my loop here in this town!..
The schooling part of college is definitely A LOT different from high school. My professors don't really care if I do the home work or come to class, and I don't even think a single one of them have even attempted to pronounce my name. I have basically slid by under the radar. It's kinda harder then high school too. I think I have already spent more time doing homework and studying and in class this past week, then I did my entire senior year, which doesn't take much because I never went to class, and took pointless classes, which I loved!!!...
Luckily I haven't gone hungry yet either. My lunches consist of making me a sandwich, because well I'm a good sandwich maker. It's a little sad though that I come home from class and have to make my own, just because I am so used to calling my dad on my way home from school so that my lunch is already made. Dinners have been a little bit interesting.. Ya know eating some good ol mac and cheese and other random non healthy foods. Tonight I was having a little pity party for myself, so I ate some cookie dough, and chips and felt much better after!
Although being on my own is fun and exciting, it's definitely not what I thought it was going to be like. I have missed my family, my friends, high school, and ... Tremonton, but I know I'm down here going to school for a reason and that everything and anything will work out as long as I put my trust in the Lord.
I think my testimony has definitely strengthened sense I have moved away. I don't have my mom making sure I go to church, I go because I want too, and well because the hot RM's too ;) haha.. Institute is something that I have kind of made a goal to make part of my weekly routine as well. I feel like if I surround myself with the gospel and people with the same goals and desires as me, it will be a lot easier to stay focused and have a good time at college, with out making some stupid mistakes!

Bring on the Freshmen 15!!! :)