As summer term draws to a close...

Hey guys! It's been a while. My bad. This term has been especially crazy and IS OVER IN A WEEK AND A HALF. That totally snuck up on me. So much has happened!

First thing's first- I said I'd update about going to Meg and Shell's houses. We'll start with Megan's for Fourth of July weekend! I went up to Rexburg with Lily and 2 of her sisters. They were nice enough to drop me off in Rexburg on their way to a family reunion in some other town not too far away.

 We partied that weekend! Sam had to work the first day :/ but me and Meg and Nat made ourselves busy at home. We went and got charcoal for the grill and grilled out with a couple of their friends from across the street. Those hamburgers were GOOD, and we had mac salad to go along with them! I tell you what. Me and Megan made the mac salad and put it in the fridge, and a few hours later we were literally sitting at their table with the giant bowl in between us, stuffing our faces. I swear I've never eaten that much macaroni salad in one sitting. It led us to have some SERIOUS gas the rest of the day, and I'm pretty sure it made me break out too all over my whole face... but it was SO good. Totally worth it. Then we went over to their friends apartment to shoot off fireworks with them and eat smores. It was so fun! Ps- one of them, Brenda, stuck a stick of string cheese on a stick and put it over the fire. It didn't get too melty, and it tasted sooooo good. You should all try it sometime.

Natalie is SOOOO cute. We went outside so she could play in the water with her teaspoon. :) She loved it, even though the water was FREEZING!

That Sunday I went to church with them. It was great because there's a Brasilian lady in their ward, Ingrid, and I got to talk to her in Portuguese for a little bit! Yay! It was great. I love Brasilians. However, it was kind of awkward because pretty much EVERYONE in their ward is somewhat recently married. I think I was the only girl in sunday school who wasn't scratching my husband's back. hahaha So that was awkward.
But after a weekend that passed much too quickly for my liking, getting stocked up with some lemon poppyseed bread, and saying a hard goodbye to Sam for the next long while (I was going to see Megan at Shell's house a few weeks after that), I headed back to Provo with Lily. We took the liberty of stopping by the Brigham City Temple on our way home. It was REALLY windy and a storm was coming in so it was actually kind of chilly, but that temple is absolutely gorgeous!

We made it home and lived happily ever after. :)

Ok, this is the part of the post that gets really random because I've fallen so far behind and I just want to write anything that's happened that I can think of.

Well, I went to cow appreciation day for the first time a few weeks ago! I went with Lily and another one of my roommates, Kaitlin. We just colored some notebook paper black and taped spots of it onto our shirts, and Lily made little paper bells for each of us to put around our necks. And we got a whole meal, drink and fries included, for absolutely 0 dollars! I LOVE FREE FOOD.

Also a few weeks ago, I went on a date! With a guy named Austin, who is from St. George. We went to a concert in Salt Lake. The band was Death Cab for Cutie. They were soooo good! I was pleasantly surprised, because I figured that since it was a live performance it wouldn't be as good as the pre-recorded stuff, but it totally blew me out of the water. And it was super cool because after it started getting dark they had a ton of really cool lights. So now I can officially say that I've been to a real concert! There was so much weed. We didn't do any, even though someone offered some to Austin. There's a first time for everything, I guess...
Before the concert started, we went across the street to this shop that has the largest variety of chocolate in all of North America or something. It was waayyyyyyy out of my league. When we walked in they had these cool little things that looked like painted clay in all different shapes and sizes and colors. I thought it was some kind of jewelry. NOPE. Turns out, it was chocolate. How embarrassing. Oh, I should mention that on this date I felt like more of a country bumpkin that I ever have before. Salt Lake is HUGE. At one point in the chocolate shop Austin's bishop called him and he had to answer it because he's the ward secretary, so he said, "Just pick one that you like!" and answered the phone. And I was left to look at walls and walls and walls of chocolate from all over the world... and it was just nuts. We ended up picking one that had Acai in it. It was good!
Anyway, it was a fun time. Way different than what I'm used to, but fun. :)

I ran in a 5k! My very first! It was a temple to temple run that they've done in Provo the past 3 years, and it's FREE! I love free stuff!!!

It was a really cool experience because it was on Pioneer Day, so we got to pick a deceased ancestor/relative of ours that we wanted to run for. I picked Papa. I'm glad I did. :) It was awesome because as I was running and I got tired, I would just think of Papa and how he worked so hard his entire life and he never quit. At one point I felt very close to him and my throat got all tight and closed up because I was fighting some tears, and then I couldn't breathe and I almost died. Haha but I got past it, and I'm grateful for that experience. I'm SO excited to meet him after this life! He's such a cool guy!

Later that same day as the 5k, I headed up to Michelle and Nate's house to hang with them. I'll post about that next time. Truly. ;)

"Be Quiet and Dance with Me!"

Well, it's officially summer term! It will be over in like 7 weeks or something crazy like that! So far it's been just grand. :)
Originally I was signed up for Chem, Book or Mormon 2, Physical Science, and Zumba. But I dropped my chemistry class after the third class. Haha, we weren't even to the actual chemistry stuff yet, just dogey math stuff that was SO boring and I haven't taken a math class since 2010... so it was pretty rough! I was sitting in the park one day trying to chug through it, but it just wasn't happening. So instead I made a list of the reasons why I'm in college and why I want to further my education anyway. I came up with several reasons, #1 being that with my degree I want to be able to help the less fortunate transform their lives and be better off. Then I thought to myself, "If that's my main goal, then WHY did I decide to do PDBio?" and the answer is because I like the classes that you get to take for that major. Which is great, nothing wrong with that, but I just felt like it wasn't exactly in line with my main goal. SO I dropped that chemistry class like it was on fire and signed up instead for an Intro to Sociology class.

So far it's been pretty cool. Sociology is defined as "the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society. AND I get to read a book that I'm super excited about, that talks about fathers who leave their wives and young babies. It sounds terrible, but wouldn't it be cool to know the psychology/sociology behind that kind of stuff? The WHY? And to hear what those fathers have to say about it? I'm intrigued. It should be here in the mail any day now! :D
I chose to take that class because as I considered and pondered and weighed my options, social work has really stood out to me. Specifically clinical social work. At this point, I'm thinking I would love to work especially with people who have addictions to drugs/alcohol. I saw a ton of that stuff on my mission, and I grew to love those people with a special part of my heart. I always wanted to know how to help them, because I literally saw it destroying their families and their lives. I can't think of anything that would bring me more joy than to see people leaving that stuff behind forever! I know it's emotionally very difficult, but I think it would be well worth it.

The thing is, there's no "social work" major at BYU. However, there is one at BYU-I. So that's another thing to consider... I just need to go to the advisement center and get it all figured out. :)

Anyway. In other news...

ZUMBA IS THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME. It is so dang fun in there! And I don't think I have ever sweat so much in my life. Never. It is such a good workout, and it gives me tons of energy! It's pretty much the highlight of my day, Monday through Thursday. It's so fun. Everyone should take a zumba class at some point in their life. Boys included. There's only 2 guys in my class (it's a class of around 60, I think), but one of them is so much fun to watch. He gives it all he's got, and shakes his scrawny white boy hips like there's no tomorrow. It's hilarious! hahahaha

Speaking of fun things, a couple weeks ago I went to the park behind the temple with a friend (NOT A BOYFRIEND, mind you) and we rolled down the GIANT hills that are back there. It was so fun. I don't think I've ever been so dizzy in my life! The next day I had a bruised hip and a gross rash all over my arms and my tummy, but I think it was worth it. and the rash went away a couple days later. :)

I went to a little Brazilian party thing a couple weeks ago. It was in Salt Lake, so I went up there with Laura (my trainer in Brasil) and some boy that she didn't want to be alone with. Haha, third wheeling is sooooooo awkward. The party was small and expensive to do anything and hot as blazes, but the food was DELICIOUS (I had coxinhas and agua de coco!). We stayed for a little bit, spoke in Portuguese with some Brasilians, (who were surprised and impressed that a bunch of blonde white girls could speak portuguese), and then headed home. It was cool.

And tonight for fhe, we're going to some mountain that Wesley knows about that has a natural water slide that you can slide down! Hopefully it won't rain; it's been cloudy allll day. But it should be super fun!

Well, I think that's enough for one post! But stay tuned for the trips to Shell and Meg's houses, they were a BLAST.

The End was Near

So I wrote this post a long time ago, and never actually posted it... but here it is, preserved for posterity anyway!!!

---2 weeks ago---

FINALS ARE NEXT WEEK. I can't believe how fast this term flew by! It seems like just yesterday was my first day.... but at the same time I'm really excited to get a new load of classes. I'm definitely ready for a change! It's been hard for the past few days to have motivation to go to class, so it's a good thing it's all about to change and I'm going to have to be running to keep up with stuff again!

This past little bit has been just grand! I'll start with the things that are most fresh in my memory.
Yesterday I turned in my big humdinger of a paper! We had to write an 8 page research paper for Book of Mormon. We could pick any topic we wanted that was somehow applicable to the gospel, and then examine it in a religious sense, a secular/academic sense (like what other religions believe about our chosen topic), and then we had a personal section where we talked about how it applied to us individually. I chose grace for my topic, and I feel like I learned a lot.
Last night was also ward temple night! It was great! I hadn't been to the temple in a little while, so I was really glad that we got to go. I went with my roommate Lily and a girl we live with, Kaitlin. It was wonderful. I'm so glad we have temples today. :)

Also recently, I went to play night games with some people on campus. I went with my mission friend Kaitlyn and Lily again. And Spencer went too haha. We went and met up with a big group of people who were all super fun, and played games like Ghost in the Graveyard and Navy Tag. It was a BLAST. It was seriously so much fun! And I learned that I am a REALLY slow runner. I think I was the slowest of all of us...kkkkk but that's ok.

In my apartment, we've been watching one Harry Potter movie per weekend, which is great. And everyone thinks that I am just like Luna Lovegood. Which I don't necessarily disagree with, but I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that...-__-

The other day I was reading about the Prodigal Son in Luke. I think it just might be my favorite parable in the whole Bible! I love it so much. If you give it a chance, you should definitely give it another read, I highly recommend it. :) (It's Luke 15:11-32).

I really like my ward. There's a bunch of really fun people in it, and 3 of them are even from Georgia! It is so fun. I'm in the ward choir too, and so it's fun to get to know people that way too. :)

ANYWAY. I should probably finish up this post so I can talk about Summer term stuff. But finals went great, I'm glad that they're over, and I'm glad I have new classes! More to come on that later!!!

Whirlwind

Hey yall! I have been pretty busy this past week and a half doing a ton of stuff! I think Michelle described it so appropriately when she said that Spring Term is sometimes like trying to drink out of a fire hose. Hahaha it is definitely true! But I am loving it!

So just to catch yall up, last Saturday I went on a hike at Bridal Veil Falls. My roommate Markie described it as being, "the easiest hike ever. As in, a bride could hike it in her wedding dress and not have any problem whatsoever." So that's what I was expecting. Just that it didn't turn out like that at all.
It was supposed to be a ward activity. Just that me, Lily, and 4 other boys were the only people who went, and 2 of the guys weren't even in our ward! Kind of funny. But we had fun anyways. The guy who put the activity together, Jared, turned out to be super hardcore and somehow convinced us all that we wanted to go up the actual WATERFALL instead of the nicely paved trail. It was INTENSE. And I didn't take a single picture, blast it, but it was super steep and slippery and we kept sliding down because parts of the "trail" were just little tiny pebbles on top of the dirt, and so on some parts we would literally have to run sideways so we could grab hold of a branch or something on the other side without falling all the way down to the bottom. We went all the way up to the second waterfall. (I was SO SORE for the next few days. Oddly enough it was my hip flexors that were really hurting. And I got pretty sunburned too. But it was totally worth it.) The view was GORGEOUS. Everyone looked so teeny tiny down at the bottom where we started. Every time I get up super high like that it always amazes me that even though we are so small and seemingly insignificant, Heavenly Father knows and loves each one of us. It's so mind boggling and cool and comforting!


In other news, I FINALLY got tested for Tuberculosis. I tested negative. And I got a cool band aid.
And that same day, I went and opened up a bank account. The lady that helped me was a little weird, but she was nice. And she straight up lied through her teeth that she knew Shauna. HAHAHA :)


Concert (Joshua James). I went to my very first concert last night with Lily and a mission friend Katelyn. It was a rooftop concert, although they don't do them on the rooftop anymore because they outgrew it. Now it's just in the middle of the street in front of the Convention Center in Provo. It was fun! There were so many hipsters! So many beards! So many people with blue hair! SO MANY MAN BUNS. And there was Acai in a little food truck called Happy Bowls Bus. (It still was nothing compared to the real thing....) It was cool. There were a couple little local bands that played, and then the main act appeared at around 9:30. His name is Joshua James, and he was surprisingly good! Apparently this same place is where Neon Trees and Imagine Dragons started out. That's pretty cool if you ask me.

 It was cool just to chill with my girls for a little bit. :)


We had a ward activity last Monday that was so fun! We all filled up long socks with flour, and then we had to hit everyone else with them. If you got hit, you had to sit down and you were out until the next round. Later we added an amendment that you could still hit people once you got out, but you had to hit them while you were sitting down. It was so fun watching the guys in my group go at it. Most of them are pretty athletic, and it was so fun to watch them come busting out of the trees with these huge grins on their faces, swinging their socks around everywhere and getting a ton of people out. #fhegrouppride


So for my Psych class we have to participate in a certain number of research projects. I went to one last Friday that I had to stare at a really bright screen with a little x on it. They had a fancy eye camera that they aimed at my eye so they could monitor my pupil dilation while they played different sounds. They played sounds from 60 to 80 decibels loud. Every time they played the 80 decibel ones i jumped out of my skin because it startled me so bad. Then the guy told me at the end that usually autistic people have much more pupil dilation on the louder sounds than "normal" people, because they perceive it as being louder than it actually is. So pretty much, he diagnosed me with autism. Nice. Speaking of which, we went over Psychological Disorders in my psych class, and I'm pretty positive I have ADHD. Really nice.


So I went to give plasma yesterday for the first time. I was there for over and hour and a half and ended up not even getting to donate (long story. I'll go next week.) but who should I meet at the plasma center but Doug's little brother, James! It was nuts! I heard the front desk call for a James and then I saw him get up and head over there. I knew I recognized him from somewhere, and then it hit me. So I went and talked to him for a little bit. He said he knew I was Shauna's sister because we all look exactly the same. Haha that's ok though, because I feel the same way about the Mitchell family. Anyway, that was pretty cool. Finally got to meet the kid, in the flesh!


Also, as I was walking to the plasma place, I was a SUPER old man outside walking very slowly to his car. I asked him if he wanted help and he said, "No, I'm ok. But I'll sit down and talk to ya for a minute!" So he sat down in his car and we chatted for about half an hour. He is HILARIOUS. His name is Don and we're friends now. He's a real sweet guy, has 5 kids and almost 50 grandkids! WOW. It was nice to take some time out of my day to help make someone else's day better. It makes me happy. :) Hopefully I'll run into that guy again soon.


Donut Day was yesterday!!! I had no idea that Donut Day even existed until I kept hearing the phrase floating around yesterday, so I googled it. Apparently it's to honor the people who first served donuts to the soldiers in WWI, and is celebrated the first Friday in June every year.

Oh, also the other day I saw 2 teeny tiny baby squirrels on campus! They were so stinkin adorable! I got about a foot away from one of them and we just stood there and stared at each other for a few seconds and then he went and dove into the bushes. But it was so precious. And then, I discovered a mommy duck with 6 teeny fluff ball ducklings in the stream! "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!!"

Anyways. My phone's being silly so there's almost no pictures this post, unfortunately. But when it gets it's act together you can expect photo documentation. There's a stake activity tonight in Provo Canyon so I'll be sure to blog about that and keep you all up to date. :)

Filling in my peeps

Hello again!

There's been quite a few things that have happened since I started back again at BYU!

1. I've had 3 big tests, (2 for Psychology, one for Portuguese) and I've done well on all of them so far! Post mission blessings are a real thing!!! :)

2. I got a calling! I'm an FHE mama! We haven't actually had an FHE that I've planned yet though, because last week we had a ward activity at Kiwanis Park (sooooo much fun!) and this week I was in Roy with Shell and the fam so we just combined with another group. But this Monday is going to be legit.

3. I spoke in church! My topic was the talk by Elder Dale Renlund, "Latter-Day Saints keep on Trying", which is an AWESOME talk, by the way. I feel like my talk went pretty well. I definitely learned a lot while preparing it.

4. Shell and Nate's house/Spiral Jetty/The Golden Spike for Memorial Day! It was so much fun that I couldn't make myself leave until I had been there for 2 days and nights, even though I'd only planned to be there for one day and one night. There's something about a little 3 year old saying "Aunt Bwi, I don't want you to leave." that just melts your heart. And going to Shell and Nate's house is always so much fun! I love it!
Also while I was there, I taught Asa to give me Xeros! A Xero is something they do in Brasil. When they hug you, they breathe in really deeply and it makes you feel great. :) I always do it to Asa when I pick him up, and he picked up on it (haha) and does it to me now. :)
And I was able to help Addison and Bryn learn how to do front flips on the trampoline! They are such champs!!!

5. I ran a 1.3 miles once, in a little over 11 minutes. That was pretty cool. #iamsooutofshape

6. I've realized that I actually really enjoy studying. I love reading my psychology book! Call me a nerd, but it is just so interesting! For example, one of the first days of class I learned that female's sweaty armpits smell worst than male's sweaty pits, because when females sweat, they secrete some kind of weird fatty stuff along with the sweat. Gross but true. And insanely interesting. Haha! It's been interesting to see also the changes in my work ethic since I came back out. I'm proud to say there's a big difference. :)

7. I've lost like 4 and a half pounds! WOOHOOOOOO!!!

8. I went to a little mini mission people reunion. :) We went to Sister Woodland's house (Laura) and hung out for a while and told funny mission stories, went and got Acai, (such a rip off! It was NOTHING like the real thing.), and then we were sitting around at her house talking and all of a sudden 4 boys showed up that nobody knew!!! They knocked on the door and said, "Uh, are you guys Kaileen's friends?" (Kaileen was one of the sisters in our mission). So we just awkwardly invited them in. Then Kaileen showed up a few minutes later. Haha it was actually pretty fun. We played Smurf until like 2 am! When I found out what time it was, my first thought was, "Oh, mom is going to be so proud of me!!!" kkkk

9. I saw my trainer in Mansfield, Sister Katy Williams! She came up one day last week and surprised me! IT WAS SOOO GOOD TO SEE HER!!! We went out to eat supper at Costa Vida and chatted it up. I've missed her so! And she's still the same old Sister Williams. :)

10. Payson Temple Open House! That temple is BEAUTIFUL, and so huge! I've never seen such a pretty baptistry in all my days. And there's 3 or 4 different floors that you can go on. And I loved the recurring apple blossoms everywhere- on the door knobs, painted onto the ceiling, on the BEAUTIUL, giant windows... it was lovely. I went with my roommate Lily and with Spencer. It was PACKED. 

 Anyway. It's been fun so far. I can't believe the spring term is almost over! Just a few more weeks. :) I'm going to miss my psych class, but I'm excited for Zumba to start up and to be able to say that I've got a good solid term under my belt. 

 

Don't Blink

Wow, so much has changed since I last blogged! Deciding to go on a mission, going home to Georgia and working 4 jobs at the same time (Spine Care and Pain Management, Check it Books, Ingles, and babysitting), receiving my mission call to go to the Brasil, João Pessoa mission (BEST THING OF MY LIFE!!!) and having so many great experiences there. Then I came home on the 28th of January, worked at Cracker Barrel for a few weeks and then went back to Ingles (waitressing wasn't really my thing... haha) and now I'm out at BYU again, living with a mission friend and loving life!

It's crazy to think about how I have changed so much in just a short amount of time. I remember last time I was out at BYU, it was so hard. I struggled socially and academically and was super homesick all of the time. Then my mission kicked my fanny into gear and totally changed my outlook on life and it's challenges, and I'm loving it now!

So I came out to Utah the Saturday before classes started to hang out with Shell, Nate, Megan, Sam and the kids and it was so much fun! I didn't really get a bunch of pictures of all of us, but I took quite a few of the cute little ones. :) It was so much fun to hang out with them and get to see them all and FINALLY meet Natalie and Asa!

 On our way to the Atlanta airport, bright and early! (Or should I say, dark and early?)

 Goofing off with Leah on our way to Roy! She's a hoot!

Bonding time with Natalie playing the cupcake game.

 The one, the only, Addison!

 The fabulous Bryn!

 On our way to church!

 Addison's quite the photographer. :)

 Birthday Festivities

 My hair straightened a little bit when I left the humidity! A Christmas miracle!

I'm sad that I didn't get ANY pictures with the big kids, but there's always next time. :) It was seriously so much fun. We went on a hike on Saturday, and Sunday we all went to church together. Me and Meg stayed with Shell in the nursery (she's nursery leader), and it was a blast. Who know nursery could be so much fun?!

Monday morning Nate worked from home so Shell could go with Addison on a field trip. I got to hang out with Leah that morning, and it was a blast. This little gem happened:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYyfwHixErM

And Shell and Nate were kind enough to let me crash their house and eat their food and party with the birthday boy (Asa) and take me grocery shopping and then Nate even drove me down to Provo early Tuesday morning. I left with a home made lunch Shell made for me with a cute note inside, that I still have. :) (She even made a lunch for Spencer. What a gal.)

It's weird being out here without Beck and Ben, but I'm grateful that there's still family close! We have the best family ever!

Stay tuned for the next edition: Entering the University- Take 2