I'll Walk, Thanks

Who knew grocery shopping could become a three hour event?

And the actual shopping part of it takes only 20 minutes.

You do the math.

I Have a Confession

The first week of college was really hard for me. I was incredibly homesick. I missed my mountains, my friends, my mom, my dad, my grandparents, my siblings - yes, even my shirtless 17 year old brother. It was a rude awakening to be uprooted from everything I have ever known and thrown into a place where I must live in a box with three other people, having no car to go places, no friends, no family, no job, no maverick frozen yogurt runs at midnight... no nothin'.

More or less I felt as though my freedoms had been taken away. I lived the good life back home, I was able to come and go as I pleased, had an awesome job playing bingo with old folks 3 days a week, hung out with my best friends every night, and slept in my own room with my own bathroom and food somehow managed to show up magically in the fridge for me to eat. It was good livin' I tell ya!

Then I was uprooted.

To Idaho.

Rexburg, Idaho.

I quickly found out that the girl to boy ratio is 3:1. Four hours of homework a night suddenly became the norm. I worried about whether or not I was going to make friends, or if ANY cute boys even existed in this place.

And they do. There's one in my American Foundations class. Teehee.

But gosh dang it I was tearin' up every five seconds just thinking about how much I missed everything. Also I was questioning my decision to move up here. I just had a terrible attitude about everything, which is so out of character for me. I'm a pretty darn happy person! I like life!

However, the story takes a turn when my english teacher assigns us to read Ether 12 for homework the first day of class. So I read it, and I come across this scripture...

Ether 12:27

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

A sweet pillar of light lit up in my head just then, I tell ya. And holy moly I know for sure that God definitely knows each one of us and what we're goin through because that is exactly what I needed to hear. Crazy how that works.

But I got to thinkin. In life we gotta have our challenges. We've got to have those hard moments that will test our character, and help us to grow. Because God puts us into situations that we're uncomfortable with sometimes so that we'll humble ourselves and get down on our knees and ask him for help, and then after we've humbled ourselves and have faith in him then he'll lift us right back up higher than we ever were before. That is how we grow. That's how we become better. We're tested and tried and if we endure it well, then we become a little closer to being the person Heavenly Father wants us to be.

And thus is life. You go up, you go down, and then afterwards you go a little higher than you were before.

You become a little better.

p.s. I'm liking college a lot better now! My mom sent me a package of false mustaches and some circus peanuts in the mail so I am a happy woman. Also I made a friend and he is from El Salvador, he is awesome and has a sweet accent.

Hello, and Welcome to Apt. #232

Hello my friends, you are now about to embark on a grand circle tour of my apartment!

Straight ahead you will see our living room. Obviously I took this picture in kind of a creeper fashion so I apologize that you cannot see the right side of the living room, but I assure you that it more or less looks like the part of it you can actually see. Oh yes, that woman on the couch is Shelby.

She loves having pictures taken of her in her lounge clothes at late hours of the night. Upon realizing that I was documenting our apartment my other roommates ran into their room and locked it. I don't think they quite like having pictures taken of themselves in PJ's as much as Shelby does. Oh well.

To your right you will see our lovely white kitchen. This is where I prepare all of my delicious canned and boxed foods.

As we walk down the hall and enter into Shelby and I's room you will see Shelby's 6 foot tall monkey, Ol' Brown Eyes. She just couldn't bear leaving him back in Utah.

Here is my side of the room! Obviously this picture was taken at an earlier date, as I am currently wearing my pajamas. But I didn't want to embarrass myself so I put this one up where I am wearing normal person clothes.

And lastly, here is my lovely miniature fish tank. It is about 2 inches tall, and my aunt sent it to me in the mail yesterday. Probably the best gift I have ever received. It's almost like having a real pet!

And so concludes the grand circle tour of Apt. #232! Thank you for joining us tonight!

Boys

My roommates and I were staring out our living room window, watching as cute boys would walk in and out of other girl's apartments in our complex. We all look around at each other and someone asks:

"Why do we never have any cute boys in our apartment?!"

"Because all we do is sit in our living room in our PJ's all day!"

Sadly that has some truth to it.

Then later that night we were all standing around, joking around about the fact that we've been here a week and there are already girls in our complex that have boyfriends. Then we were making fun of ourselves for not yet making any guy friends, and just kind of moping and sympathizing with each other.

Right in the middle of this feeling sorry for ourselves about our lack of male interaction Shelby gets a phone call from a boy.

So Ashley and I look at each other, and storm out of the room.

"Ashley, I guess it's just me and you now! The only ones without a boy!"

So as the two of us start heading to the kitchen to eat a tub of ice cream so we can further pity ourselves Ashley starts cracking up.

"What! What is so funny?"

"As I walked past the bathroom all I saw was a pack of pads and I thought to myself... This is it... this is my life now... sitting here in this apartment on my period, eating tubs of ice cream all the time!"

Hahaha. So we both start laughing as we once again make our way to the kitchen in our PJ's to eat ice cream and admire cute boys out the window who don't even know we exist.

Granted, it has only been 6 days, and we all did make a pact once we got here that there would be "No Rings, Just Flings!" But I had no idea that avoiding marriage the first year of college would be so darn easy.

I seriously need some guy friends.

Suddenly Idahoan

As an angsty 14 year old girl I was openly against everything Idaho. I made it known to everyone that I would never. ever. live there.

Fast forward 5 years and I live there!!

Funny how things change.

Shelby and I in front of our apartments. Oh yeah. 

I'm buying my own toilet paper now. Craziness.

BYU-I is awesome. My roomies are awesome. College is just great.

The Not-So Sensuous Sandwich

Took on the Sensuous Sanwich 2-footer challenge today.

I requested they cut it into thirds, so that I could eat it in a more manageable approach.

After 16 inches of pastrami, jack cheese, turkey, vinegar and oil, the sandwich began to defeat me. So I unbuckled my belt, hoping that I could possibly make some more room. Each bite was an intense battle between myself and the sandwich, and also trying not to up chuck. With 10 minutes left on the clock, the remaining 8 inches of glory had become a soggy mess. Then I threw up (don't worry it was in the trash can).

I may not have gotten the picture on the wall or the free T-Shirt, but I felt like the real thrill was in the attempt. Maybe I'm just saying that because I failed. But I had fun trying anyway, and I guess that's what really counts when going to battle against a two foot long sandwich.

My stomach hurts.







College Livin'

Technically I'm not in college yet. BYU-I doesn't start until the 12th of September, and I don't even move out until the 8th. So pretty much I have been sobbing over everyone's facebook statuses....

"College is so great!!! I luv it!!! 4eva!!!"

"Me and my roommates just bought a big screen TV and then had a dance party in the street! Woo! College ROCKS!"

"My professor looks like Mr. Rogers! lollzzz. Luv college life."

"So many attractive men AT COLLEGE! Love it here at BYU!"

Ok so maybe those "statuses" were a little bit of an exaggeration. But that's basically the kind of material people have been posting. Pretty much college sounds awesome. Everyone and their dog started like, last week. And I'm still waking up and going to work in the morning. I haven't even packed up all my junk yet. Good news is that there's only seven more days THEN I get to start college livin'. And partyin'. And stuff. Except we're not allowed to wear shorts, or capris up at Rexburg, so probably there won't be any partying. Everyone knows that a life without capris and shorts is no life at all. Especially a partying life.

That was a joke. I don't even wear capris. And Rexburg is cold. So NBD.

Plus my life is a party practically every day anyway. I mean just today I ate a J-Dawg wit some buds. That was wild, believe me. I had sauerkraut, pickles AND onions on it. Just imagine the current smell of my breath. Now if that's not living life on the edge I don't know what is.

Anyway, the point of this post is to say that I'm REALLY REALLY excited for college. I can't wait until I'm movin up to Idaho, into my awesome dorm with my awesome roommates and awesome best friend. And decorating my awesome room with my awesome decorations I bought. Which awesomely I haven't bought any, but I'm sure I'll find some. Maybe I'll buy a Jet Li poster. JK. I'd probably buy like a Lord of the Rings poster. Let's be real here.

So yeah... eat a J-Dawg.

Note: Actual J-Dawg is better tasting than this picture makes it out to be.