One Less Moment

Lynn and I walked to the Provo Temple today. It was great! An absolutely beautiful place!! We each wrote to five missionaries as well!  I have a really good feeling that this semester is going to be amazing! Classes start tomorrow and I'm beyond excited!!!!! BYU is fantastic!!!!!

My textbooks and everything totaled around $250, which apparently is good! HaHa I'm taking Freshman Seminar, The Living Prophets, Book of Mormon, Human Development, Lifestyle Management and American Heritage. Lynn and I had nothing else to do the past few days so we finished all our readings for classes and watched How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days and Sons of Provo and Turn Around!!!! It's been very eventful!! 

Today is my first day in the 151st Ward!!! I hope we have a great group like I did over summer term. We meet in the JKB (Jesse Knight Building).  Today is also fast sunday! It is a great day!!!!

"People can live a hundred years without really living for a minute. You climb up here with me, it's one less minute you haven't lived."

-Logan, Gilmore Girls

SIMPLY FANTASTIC WEEK!!!!

So in the past week, I've done a lot of things and met many amazing people!!! On Saturday, Roxanne and I walked 5 miles to Orem to the movie theatre and saw "Post Grad" which was simply amazing! Alexis Bledel is one of my absolute favorite actresses!!!! After wandering around University Mall, we traveled the 5 miles back to Provo on foot, which seemed like a much shorter walk! Then we moved all of my stuff into my new Chipman dorm room and went off to babysit two little girls. We spent the whole night with them and slept over to the next day. After a lovely dinner, we went home, watched Gilmore Girls, and unpacked my stuff!!! My room is now completely wallpapered in photos and posters!!!! I love it!!!! Then monday, I was off to Aspen Grove for the Foundations of Leadership Conference for incoming freshmen. It was simply fantastic! I can't describe how amazing the experience was!!!!! I was in group six with Claire and Brad as peer mentors and Katy, Annie, Katie, Sarah, Chase, Camron, and Sam as group members. We left BYU around 10 am and had an Opening Introduction and a lesson from Claire at our group spot on the third floor balcony of the Beckham Lodge. Then we had some MAJOR FUN at the Follies playing group games that required a lot of team work to accomplish.  There were building games, frisbee games, hula-hoops, alphabets, and giant volleyballs!!!!  Then we went to the ropes course where we had to play more teamwork games that forced us to communicate effectively. Those were the best: lifting everyone through "spider webs" and capturing a magical fish! We then went up to the Emerald Dining Hall for dinner and then reflection time! Then came the really fun part: the "Rise and Shout" Rally!!!! We learned the BYU fight song and all about having school spirit! We even met Cosmo the Cougar, BYU's mascot!!!  Then there was a dance, which Sarah and I opted out of to watch National Treasure with some other people in another room.  The sleep I got that night was pretty solid!!! Tuesday's breakfast was pretty fantastic: waffles!!!!!  Then we had a lesson from Brad at our group spot then two breakout sessions.  I went to Brother Livingston's lecture on Self-Development. He was AMAZING!!!! He said some of the most hilarious things!!!!! For instance, "The Natural Man is an idiot," and "Shouldn't we clean this up?!"  Then I went to Brother Bott's lecture on sharing the gospel and overcoming obstacles.  After that we had another reflection and lunch!!!!! After that yummy meal, we went to the amphitheatre to hear about all the activities and groups on campus.  Then we went to their booths, reflection again, and then more games at the Follies.  Then came a great time in the day: FREE TIME!!!!! I went swimming with Sarah and hung out with Annie.  Then came dinner!!!! And then an amazing Music Program and Testimony Meeting. Then came the best ending to the day possible: a night adventure about trust where we were all blindfolded being led around camp by Claire and Brad.  Afterwards we laid down and looked at the gorgeous stars above the mountains of the Wasatch Range.  We had a great day!!!!!! Then came this morning.....a sad day......checkouts.  :( We had one more breakout session, and we went to one by Brother Peterson on Service.  Then another lesson was given by Brad and Claire.  Then came one of the best parts of the experience, breaking through our fears and reaching our goals by breaking boards!!!!!! Everyone was so pumped and really cheering each other on. It was amazing!!!!!! We then took a group picture and loaded the busses. I'm so glad I went to FOL. My group was amazing and even though we only new each other for 48 hours or so, we really grew close and are now really good friends.  FOL was one of the best decisions I've ever made! 

I'm soooooo excited for Fall Semester to begin on monday! I've never looked forward to school so much!!!!

Thank you to Brad and Claire for being the best peer mentors ever and to Orange Ninja for being an amazing group!!!!!

"The plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac? That doesn't even sound like English!"

"That's because it's French."

-Lorelai and Rory, Gilmore Girls

Colorful Characters!

So it's been a week since my last post.  Since then, everyone has moved out and Roxanne and I are the only ones left!!!! We've played tons of solitaire as well as spit, james bond, and trash.  We are also well on our way to finishing the complete series of Gilmore Girls before school starts up again on the 31st!!! We also drank so much water that we now have 10 empty bottles and have begun bowling in my room, with our cell phones instead of a bowling ball.  We had an adventure to Salt Lake City on tuesday, movie (Julie and Julia starring Meryl Streep) on monday, baked a lovely lasagna last night, comedy sportz tonight, movies (post grad starring Alexis Bledel) on saturday, move out saturday morning and move into my new room on saturday night! We've had some pretty fun adventures even though there is no one else to talk to but each other! I go to Aspen Grove on monday for the Foundations of Leadership Conference for byu freshmen.  It should be fun!!!! Until then, we're stuck eating Spoon Me spoons!!!

"What is Stars Hollow if not a haven for colorful characters?"

-Sookie, Gilmore Girls

Earn My Grades! END OF SUMMER TERM!!

Today I took my three finals!!! English was at 11 am, a group project, presenting a brochure. We got an A+, so that brings my final grade to an A-! Then Arielle, Taylor, Amanda, Alyssa, and I went to hang out with Harold (the Harold B. Lee Library!) to study a little for Physical Science. We sat down in a dark room on the bottom floor doing review questions and learning to dance to "You're a Jerk!" Then we ventured off to the Testing Center.  I spent an hour in there for a 100 question test and got a 70% which I'm perfectly okay with! That class is HARD!!!!! That brings my final grade to around a B-!!! And finally, after dinner I took my final in Student Development.  It was a group project to diagnose a case study.  I was in a group with Taylor and Connie (a mom coming back to college).  We're pretty sure we got an A+ which would leave me with an A! Overall, I'm very proud of my work this summer. 

I'm sad that everyone is leaving tomorrow or friday. Hopefully I'll get to see most of them still in the fall semester (which starts in two weeks!). In the meantime, Roxanne and I are gonna party it up here in Provo for our two week vacation!!!!!

"I'm just saying that I want to earn all of my grades. No matter how many 'wise, willfull, and wonderful women' I know!"

-Rory, Gilmore Girls

Brains Completely Fried!

Yesterday was our last day in the BYU 95th Ward..... :( It has been a great summer with all of these amazing people.  I've made friendships that will last a very long time.  I'm excited to start Fall semester, but really disappointed that the fun of summer and the people I've grown to love are leaving.  

Today was our last day of actual class for English and Physical Science.  We worked on our final group project: a brochure for English. Then Physics was a big review session. A ton of people had a TON of questions!!! Big long day of Physics!!!  After classes, we went and had lunch with Sister Cutler. Then I made the dreaded walk to the testing center to take my final "midterm" for unit 4 Physics about Geology and Astronomy.  I made a 70% which wasn't horrible.  It seems to be my average test grade.

We opened our tie-dye shirts and they look AMAZING!!!!!! I love them!!!!!! Mine shrunk, so I'm just going to have everyone sign it and I'll hang it up in my fall dorm room as a keepsake!!!

"What was with those kids? So curious, so full of questions. Shouldn't their brains be completely fried on TV and video games by now?"

-Lorelai, Gilmore Girls

Everybody Else Is!

Tonight was the Super Summer Splash-n-Bash for all the on-campus housing students. It was held in Helaman Fields over by Budge Hall. There was ultimate frisbee, dunk your RA, a bounce house race, snow cones, popcorn, waterballoons, and water kickball!!!!! It was pretty fun!!!! Cameryn and Arielle won the girl team relay through the bounce house! They got quite a lot of burns on that as well! We dunked our RA Julie too! hahaha Good Times!!!!

After the party, Alena, Arielle, Cameryn, and I went back to Hinckley to tie-dye t-shirts!!! There were only two sets of gloves so I was the odd man out without gloves! Thus, I have a tie-dyed shirt AND tie-dyed hands!!!! I'm that cool!!! Pono says the dye lasts for a few days and theres nothing to help it.....sad.....but it gives me more character!!! Now we have to wait about 9 hours to rinse out the shirts and see the finished product!! We ran out of dye so all of our shirts have a bit of white still left on them....they should be pretty cool though!!!!

"Look around. Every single person in this place is having a better time than we are. Why? I mean, we've been doing everything everybody else is." 

-Paris, Gilmore Girls

Spreading Like Wild Fire!

The past couple days have been interesting. I've finally realized what the craziness is about college finals week! There are so many review sessions to go to, papers to worry about, and packing to do! On wednesday, we turned in our 8 page research papers and we got them back today! 96% for me!!! My highest college paper yet!!!! We also started our next project in English, a group project making brochures to lure high school seniors to BYU.  My group is Arielle, me, Dan, and Ally.  We're doing really well so far! Then today was our last day of Physical Science instruction.  The last day we got to see Professor Hart.  He was one of the best Science teachers I've ever had, maybe THE best! I have one more test in there (tomorrow) and then the final on Wednesday.  Student Development should be an easy final as well.  We are in groups for this as well, working on a case study to "diagnose" a student's study problems.  Tonight, or some other night soon, the girls of 2100 Hinckley are tie-dying shirts!!!! I'm so excited! I love making shirts!!! Last night we actually made t-shirts as an entire hall.  We spray painted them out on the back lawn.  I got there a little late and there weren't many colors left, but I still think I got out with a pretty good shirt! This morning, coming back from class I passed the area where we spray painted and the grass was all different colors!  It was a sight to see! I still find it ironic that Mormons were getting high off of spray paint at a BYU approved event!!! HaHa!

There have been about 12 forest fires in the state of Utah over the past couple of days.  One is in Zion National Park, one in Salt Lake City that closed one of the airport runways, and one near Cedar City.  They haven't moved near Provo yet, and they probably won't.  They are pretty much contained now.  The air was so dusty and smoky that Mt. Timpanogas completely disappeared for a whole day! We got to experience a "flat" Utah for awhile!!!

"I've been testing people who have 'honk' bumper stickers lately to see if they really want people to honk..."

"You need a hobby."

"Yes, actually."

-Lorelai and Emily, Gilmore Girls

What Does This Mean???

I've been pretty incognito lately! The end of summer term is very busy! Monday night, instead of regular FHE, we had our Ward Closing Social.  We went up into the mountains to Vivian Utah County Park.  There was volleyball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, and a talent show.  At one point Chris had to jump in the nasty river to retrieve the volleyball. Later, Russell kicked the soccer ball too hard and it landed in the river as well.  He wasn't quite as eager to jump in though.  He waited until the ball floated down to the road to grab it.  The talent show was really good.  It was more of a variety show though.  Caitlin played and sand "Umbrella" on her guitar, Jennifer sang, Tommy played guitar, the boys sang the Pokemon theme, men's choir performed, Kody played and sang a Billy Joel song, and Matt made up a song on the spot with the piano.  

Tuesday was a very long day.  First, Arielle, Jordan, Allie, and I went to breakfast and then to the TA Lab for our geological field trip up to Rock Canyon.  When we got to the TA Lab, there was a sign from Katy on the door that said, "We left! Come on up to Rock Canyon!" But we were 10 minutes early! So we decided to wait until 9 to leave because Braden (our TA) is notably late.  A lot of us showed up and luckily right at 9 Katy walked up! Braden came in a little after.  We carpooled up to Rock Canyon and walked around for about an hour and a half looking at all the different rocks and how plate tectonics worked on the Wasatch Mountains.  Afterwards, Braden drove us back to Helaman Halls.  Arielle and I worked on our papers for about two hours and then were off to conference with Sister Cutler about them.  Mine went very well....not much to fix! I was so happy that it was quality. That research paper was a killer.  I wrote about Habitat for Humanity. After conferences, we went and chatted with Kody and Tommy on the way to the Cougar Eat.  Then, I went to dinner with the kids in my freshman academy with Professor Rash from our Student Development class. Our class was at 5 was all about relaxation techniques.  We were all laying out on the classroom floor. A lot of the guys ended up falling asleep they were so relaxed! I was pretty light headed after the class, so I had to get up off the floor very slowly.  It really tired us all out but we were definitely relaxed! I was walking back to the dorm and I see Jocelyn, my friend from back home.  We decided to go to dinner at the Cannon Center.  Afterwards, I went back to the dorm for like 10 minutes and then I was out again with Jordan to the library to see a lecture on "Is Pluto a Planet?" We learned that sadly Pluto is no longer a planet and probably never will be again....at least when we're older we can tell our children "When we were your age, Pluto was a planet!" HaHa!  We finally got back at 9pm.  All I could do for the rest of the night, was edit my paper and read physics!! I went to bed at 1:30, being the most tired I've been my entire time in Utah.

Woke up this morning at 7:30, English started at 8 and if you were late, your 300 point paper was late! Luckily, we were on time. Sister Cutler brought us donut holes and milk!!!! We then went to the computer lab to start our next project, in groups!! Its an informational brochure luring kids to come to BYU.  It is our final. Then, Physical Science was pretty interesting today. We talked about the solar system and the life cycle of a star.  I learned that the Sun is actually an average size star.  There are actually a lot of stars BIGGER than the Sun!!! Woah!!!! Then we had lunch with Sister Cutler and Prof. Hart. After that, the bed sounded like a great option.  We came back and slept for like three hours! Then dinner.....then now! Volleyball later tonight!!!!!

Today was the most tired I've felt in my two months here at BYU.  The lack of sleep is finally catching up to me. I seem to be forgetting everything and I can only think about sleeping. Tonight, I am definitely retiring to bed early! FINALS NEXT WEEK!!!!!!

"I don't know what anything means anymore. I mean, I can't even read my own handwriting.  What does this say? The person who wrote this should be dressed in a clown suit stuffing bodies under their porch!"

-Paris, Gilmore Girls

This Town

This town--Provo, UT--is dead on weekends!!!! All there is to do is eat, sleep, homework, facebook, and go to Humor U!!!!!! Stand-up comedy is pretty hilarious! They danced to Billie Jean, talked about the Smart Mop, tough economic times, robots, sang a song about being part of The Cupcakes, and about Sarah Palin being President of Relief Society!!!!! Great stuff!!!!! I went with Roxanne and Clara.  Just can't wait until tomorrow! No food AND no entertainment!!!!!

"This town--"

"--is our town. This town is so glamorous!"

-Luke and Lorelai, Gilmore Girls