Last Sunday!

Today was the last Sunday of this semester!!! (Next week we're all gonna be partying with Shell and Nate and Meg and Sam and the like.) YAY! It was a really good Sunday. After we did the sacrament, the choir did this whole Christmas program instead of having speakers. We sang 6 songs. The last one was called Carol of Joy. It was so awesome! We've been having a little bit of trouble getting that song up to par, just because it's kind of long and there's lots of harder parts and we'd only worked on it like 4 times. But when we performed, we sounded SO AWESOME. It was incredible. We really sounded incredible. It was some powerful stuff.
The choir program ended up being a little short, and so when we finished we still had like 15 minutes left. The bishop got up and bore a brief but extremely wonderful testimony and then said that since he likes Christmas hymns so much, he wanted us to sing a bunch of them together as a congregation for the last little bit. So we did! It was one of those moments where I just got this overwhelming feeling of gratitude that I could come out to BYU and get to see all these people who have the same beliefs as me. It was great. :)

So this week is finals week. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. I'm sort of freaking out. Finals are extremely important. I'm mostly worried about Physical Science-that's what I've focused most of my studying on thus far. Wish me luck!

I'm going to be home in less than 2 weeks! Hooray!

Also, I'm extremely stoked for this party at Shell and Nate's this weekend. It's gonna be a shindig to remember.

In 8 days I'm going to be on my merry way to San Diego. It's going to be a blast. We're going to sea world! And the beach! And we're doing a bunch of other fun things that I will be sure to fill you all in on.

Jenna- THANK YOU FOR YOUR LETTER. It was truly awesome. Also, I can't wait to come home and be with your hilariousness again.

EVERYONE at home - Dad, Mom, Jenna, Ryan, Kaylyn, Shauna, Doug, Juliann, Jackson, Russell, Emilee... I seriously can not wait to see you all again. I miss you all SO much. (Also- Amber, you should totally move down closer so I can see you on breaks like these. Just sayin.)

Love you all! Wish me luck on finals! Thanks for all the prayers!

Exciting and Happy Things

1. I AM GOING HOME THIS MONTH!!!!! i am SO stinkin excited about this. Me and Emma have a paper chain in our room counting down the days, and it's getting really short! Brother Young (Asst. Marching band director) hooked me up with a FREE plane ticket home after the bowl game. I leave on the 21st at 11:00 am from the LAX airport. I am so excited I can hardly stand it.

2. I've been on two dates! Both with the same guy, John Christiansen. I've started to blog about them like a billion times, but I never finish. Anyway, the first date we went on was 2 weeks ago. We went geocaching. It was really fun, and we actually found 2 treasure things! Then we went to the Brick Oven for supper and ate a TON of salad and pizza and their specially made root beer, which is the best root beer in the universe. It's even better than Barq's. He was a real gentleman the whole time, and he opened doors for me, walked on the side of the sidewalk closest to the road, and was just really nice.
The other date was just last night. We went to a divine comedy show. When he picked me up he had a giant yellow gerber daisy for me. It's so pretty, and it's in a cup of water in the kitchen right now.
Divine Comedy was great! They are so hilarious! It was a party. They take little breaks in between skits they do and turn off all the lights and shower everyone with glow sticks. It was seriously like the funniest thing I've ever seen.
We swung by John's house afterwards to grab a quick California roll, because I'd never had one. It's some kind of american-ized sushi. It was actually pretty darn good, surprisingly.
There's a ton of other stuff I should probably say about those dates but I really don't want to make this a novel. If you want deets, give me a call! Or a letter! Or an email! Or something!

3. I FINALLY cut Jamie's hair! Yesterday! And it was soooo fun! It's inspired me to start my own salon. I can't believe I've never cut hair before.
So he came over to my house with all of his hair cutting stuff and we watched the SEC championship while I chopped it. I can't remember if I already said that I was GOING to shave it, because he has a family member starting chemo soon. But apparently they found out his nice plan and got a little angry about it and told him not to shave his head after all. So I just gave him a normal buzz cut. It was nice that he could meet my roommates and that we got to know each other a little better. Plus, he gave me some junior mints that he got at the creamery. And ANYONE  that gives me free junior mints is automatically my favorite.
His new hairdo looks awesome. I messed up around his right ear just a little bit. But only a little and you couldn't even really tell unless you really looked at it real hard for a long time. Also, I forgot to take pictures. Heh. Whoops. Next time.

4. Jamie's totally into me. Actually that's probably a little bit of a lie. However, after I got home from my date with John he sent me a text saying that he's gotten a compliment on his haircut. :D Which is mostly what has inspired me to open my salon. We talked for a while via texts and he asked me if I was doing pep band. (Which I'm not. ) I told him I'd probably be working all the time anyway, but I wasn't sure where. AND THEN HE SAID THAT THE MTC IS ALWAYS HIRING AND THAT I SHOULD GET A JOB AS A SECURITY GUARD, WHICH IS WHAT HE DOES. Holy smokes. It  makes me happy that he thinks I should work with him. Even though I'm apparently not cool enough to get asked on a date by him. Pomp.

5. This is the last week of classes! And we don't even have class on Friday!

6. Delaney's family got a new Christmas tree this year, and they are letting us use their old one. It's a huge one! She said it's like 7 feet tall. I have NO CLUE where we are going to put it though. There's really no room in our whole apartment. Also, they're also going to let us use ornaments they're not using. Score!

7. Christmas music has started! and it makes me happy.

8. I got a compliment on my sweater! From Delaney. It still counts.

9. Emma made pork chops for supper tonight. She baked them in the oven with ketchup and a lemon slice on each one. And they were delicious.

10. The bishop gave me sweet tarts today after tithing settlement. Also, we had cupcakes after choir.

11. I finally saw the Dark Knight Rises! At Beck and Ben's house! It was soooo good. Highly recommended by me.

12. I'm reading books for fun! Preparation precedes power, and The Screwtape Letters. Both of which are also highly recommended by me.

13. It's not even that cold outside anymore!

14. Testimony meeting was SO good today. It was definitely the best one so far in this ward.

15. Delaney and her bf Rich made toffee the other day on a date because they're cute. And it's really really really really reallllllllllllly amazing. It has walnuts on it. And chocolate.

16. We're watching Home Alone this week sometime! Neither Delaney nor Emma have ever seen it! So sad, these deprived children.

17. The other day after Marching band, I walked home with a nice boy I met on the bus named David. That boy can sang. And he's super duper nice. And it was fun not to walk all the way home by myself.

18. I live really close to Beck and Ben and Trevor. And also kind of close to Shell and Nate and Addison and Bryn and Leah. And that is possibly the best thing about being at BYU. I don't know how we got such a stellar family guys. We seriously lucked out in that department.

19. I've never paid to do laundry. Every time I think about this it just makes me feel extremely happy and also a little bit spoiled. It's just so fantastic. 

20. And D, I haven't gotten sick even once this whole semester. I've had a bunch of days where I was feeling like I was getting sick, but it hasn't actually happened. Which is just MARVELOUS.

On a different note, finals are the week after this week. Prayers much appreciated. Also letters. Also chocolate. Love you all!

Rocky Mountain

Rocky Mountain is this thing in Utah that's pretty much like festival in GA. A bunch of high school bands come and perform, compete, and the like. Then at the end, the BYU Cougar Marching Band performs and shows em all how it's done! It's supposed to get high schoolers really excited to join the band after they graduate. It happened kind of a long time ago- I might have posted something about it. Since then we've learned a whole new show that we performed this past Friday.

This is the show we did at Rocky Mountain. It's the second show we learned this year. I don't think this is our best performance, but it's pretty awesome if I do say so myself. A million bucks says you can't find me! Also, keep an ear out for first trumpet. That's what I played. The screaming (super high trumpet notes) is all coming from Clif.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47NIf9mAvbo&feature=share

Choir

I just want you all to know that we are singing this song in choir. Except we won't have string accompaniment. Feel free to come and watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iRxZMudrAY&feature=youtu.be

Today

If we're starting "today" at midnight, then today started spectacularly! I was looking for my anatomy book that I used in high school, which I bought because it's the coolest book EVER and it was only six dollars. Anyway, Emma had ear infections a ton when she was little, and now she has giant holes in both of her eardrums. I have no clue how she has no hearing loss. So I was going to read the chapter on ears and figure it out. Much to my dismay, it wasn't on my desk with all of my other books. I started digging around under my bed, and I looked in one of the boxes. My book wasn't in there but something else was. I found my black jacket! The one I'd given up all hope of finding! Hallelujah! Also, there was another pair of jammie pants in there, which was great because all my other ones were dirty except for my shorts, and it was REALLY cold yesterday.
After I woke up this morning at 9, I went out to the kitchen wearing my newly found pink plaid PJ's, my fuzzy pink slippers, and my ginormous duck robe. Toasty warm. :) I was sitting at the kitchen table with Emma, fighting to keep my eyes open while eating. We had been there about 5 minutes when she turned to me and said, "Look," and then she opened up the blinds really fast. It was snowing! Not just wimpy snow either. Like, we're talking snowflakes as big as Manhattan. I still can't decide if I'm excited, full of dread, or just shocked that it's snowing in October.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCubllXIe10
Anyway, after all that, I showered, got ready for the day, and did a little homework. I had a meeting with my Advisor lady today at 11:00, and the bus was leaving at 10:40. At 10:39 I started walking over to the bus stop, because I live less than a minute away. I was wearing my newly found jacket and some shoes that are definitely NOT the warmest, and definitely not even close to being waterproof... in fact, they're more like sponges. So I got to the bus stop and didn't see the bus. I figured I was a little early, so I stood there waiting for a few seconds. As I was looking around, I spotted the bus at the it of Wyview, driving away without me! I SPRINTED after it waving my arms, to no avail. It left me there.
I was NOT going to be late to this meeting. I turned on my heel away from the dag blasted bus exit, and started walking toward campus. On a normal day, it usually takes me about 25 minutes to get to the middle of campus, where all the important buildings are. By this point, I only had about 18. Good thing I'm an excellent speed walker. Thank heavens for marching band.
I walked all the way there, including up the MASSIVE hill at the end of the walk, and went into the Wilk, which is where the meeting was. I ran into the Advisement Center at 11:04, worried that the lady I was having the meeting with (Irene) was going to hate me and yell at me for being late. I talked with the guy at the desk and told him what I was there for, and he buzzed Irene. She came out at like 11:20 or something ridiculous. I apologized for my lateness, figuring she was thinking something like, "She wasted my time, so I'll waste even MORE of hers." She replied with something to the effect of, "Oh you were late? I was the late one. I was just having a nice pleasant chat with one of my colleagues and didn't even look at the time. Also, I've started taking steroids, so I hope you don't mind if I take forever to lay out all of the calcium and vitamins I'll have to be taking now, because steroids are bad for your bones apparently. I play the violin and the viola. You'll need to buy these expensive pens to write in your planner with, it's the only way you'll be organized. It's okay though, they're only three dollars a piece! My favorite color is purple. Let me write that IN YOUR PLANNER because I'm slightly doofy. 'I like purple', there we are. Great. You're taking 15 credits this semester? Wow, that's a lot of classes. You'll need to study at least 700 hours per week. I hope that won't be a problem. Here, you should fill out all of these to-do lists and weekly calendars. Also, I want you to color code them with the fancy pens you'll be buying. blah blah blah..."

My reaction:
I got all sweaty and gross for nothing. She was 20 minutes late.
I don't exactly care if you're taking steroids.
Heck no woman, I am NOT buying no three dollar pens. You crazy.
Don't write in my planner, even if your favorite color is purple. (By the way, she was wearing a LOT of purple.)
Yeah, I know it's a lot of classes. Thank you for pointing that out.

The meeting was supposed to be only 30 minutes, and she kept me in there for an hour. And I asked if I was supposed to bring the schedule/to do lists back so she could check them off or something, and she said that sounded like a great idea and to come in sometime next week. Nice.

After I was done on campus, I walked up to the bus stop so I could go home. I got there right on time, only to see the bus pull out of the parking lot just as I got there. NICE. At least it had stopped snowing by then. I called mom, which improved my mood by about 6000%, and then the bell tower played the Harry Potter theme music, which made it even more awesome. The bus came after about 20 minutes, right as it started snowing again. I sat next to a really sweet girl from my ward named Alyssa and it was great. She's from around Augusta, GA and she has the same accent as Sister Adair.

Anyway... I just wanted that documented.

In other news, I got a letter from John! Aunt Susan's John! He's doing pretty good. He'd LOVE some letters though, I'm sure. So get on that. :)

I don't have ANY tests this week!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNA!!! I can not BELIEVE you're 17, old woman. I still feel like I'm 17 all the time. Sometimes I forget I'm actually 18. You are so beautiful and hilarious and intelligent and wonderful and fun to be with and awesome and I reeeeeeeally love you a lot! I miss you all the time. I'm really glad we're sisters and also that we're besties 4eva, yo. And hey, now you can get your DRIVER'S LICENSE!!!!! 10:00 AND 2:00!!!!!  Even though you're definitely a clog pump. And a shawty pomp. And this video reminds me of you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3v4nC3iuMo

Marching practice is INSIDE today! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

You are all awesome. :) Love you!

Perfectly Happy

I'm done doing homework for the night, this crazy week is FINALLY over, and now I'm sitting on my bed in my jammies listening to Luke Bryan and eating a bag of salad (because I'm vegetable deprived). AND, in the morning, there's no game, just a trumpet breakfast at Clif's house where I will be stuffing my face with hashbrowns, bacon, orange juice and Clif's wife's famous stuffed french toast, which actually sounds disgusting, but which I will eat anyway.
PLUS, I didn't shower today, my hair was in a ponytail, I had zero make up on, and I was wearing my GIANT plaid shirt... and 3 people told me how beautiful I looked today. And I only knew one of them. The other ones were just random people in classes.
Also, I'm going to a corn maze soon with the trumpets.
Pretty much, right now is fabulous, and a welcome break.

Crazy Week

I've got the craziest week of my life coming up. I'll be taking three tests this week (Humanities, Physical Science, and New Testament), a smaller quiz (Env. Bio), turning in a paper I've got to redo completely, since I did it wrong the first time, giving blood for the first time on Wednesday, and I've still got practice three times this week. Wow. I would really appreciate some prayers on my behalf... I'm going to need all the help I can get this week.