One Month Down

Happy Saturday everyone!! I am currently so excited because I have about thirty minutes to do whatever I want and I've chosen to write in my blog for you all to read! Don't you feel special?

This week was great. Monday for FHE we were scheduled to go to our bishop's house for a lesson and dinner. HOWEVER, Monday we got snowed on a ton and by 6 o'clock I was very nervous about driving to Bishop's house (considering he lives in Idaho Falls). Of course, we- being the foolish, invincible-minded young adults that we are- decided to go anyway. I drove my car with its bald tires and poor air circulation (the windows fog up and stay that way if too many people are breathing inside) in the horrible weather. We followed a plow on the interstate for a lot of it, but when he turned around to head back to Rexburg, I was very nervous! We didn't go faster than 45 mph the whole time. We were all over the place. I kept thinking, "If only my mom could see me now." I know she would've died of fright.

But good news: we made it in one piece, the food was great, and our bishop is awesome! He worked for Disney, and he currently gets paid to fish. Talk about your dream job.

Tuesday for devotional Elder L. Tom Perry spoke to us. Everyone was excited, and they whole I-Center was full. They never open the very top, but for this they did. We were all excited to be taught by an apostle. Something I found interesting was that he spoke about raising strong families the whole time, except for a little excerpt where he said we have way too much potential to be mediocre. I guess it makes sense since we will be the ones raising families soon. I sat by all my friends and FHE brothers and we hung out for a little bit after devotional at the Crossroads. This semester I have the best FHE group. The guys are all awesome and they like to hang out with us all the time. We love it!

Tuesday night I was invited to a fireside in the Taylor Chapel with Elder Perry and his wife. The invitation was extended to Relief Society presidencies and staff members, so that was really cool! Sister Perry talked about John Taylor's life story (yawn....sorry, but, yawn) but then Elder Perry told stories of how he's met every President of the church since he was 7 beginning with President Harold B. Lee. Pretty cool stuff.

Wednesday night we played Ultimate Frisbee at the Hart Gym. We are banned from the I-Center and a few of us are currently fighting this ridiculousness through the SRC (student representative council). That was a lot of fun. My roommate is Australian and we celebrated Australia Day that night with "pavlova" which is an Australian dessert.

Thursday night our FHE brothers played wallyball with us in the Hart. Chase and Conrad joined us. That was pretty fun. We watched "Shooter" at Chase's lounge after that. I did my English homework during the movie via my smart phone. I love having internet on my phone. I get so much done in-between having my laptop.

Friday I threw my roommate Kelsey Montgomery a surprise birthday party! Her friends and sister came up and took her to dinner in Idaho Falls. While she was gone I got everyone together in our lounge and we ate pizza and drank pop until she showed up for us to surprise her. Kim (the friend that took her to dinner) bought her a cake that we picked up so we sang Happy Birthday and ate cake. I gave her her gift and we watched "True Grit" in our new theater room. That was awesome! I'm not much for westerns, and let me tell you--everyone in that movie is so ugly you can hardly stand it-- but I surprisingly liked that movie!

Today I have lots of homework to finish, but I am going to the temple with my roommates. I'm sure we'll do something fun tonight - I'm thinking ice skating! - but for this afternoon I'll just be doing homework.

I'm getting along fine in my school. I've still got 100% in most of my classes. I really like my job! I am a good tutor. Being my first semester and all, I'm only supposed to have three students, but I currently have six. My supervisor is trying to figure things out, but until then, I am in the Reading Center tutoring students quite a bit.

I've decided to change my major. I was taking an "Intro to English Studies/Professions" class and after going to class twice I just thought to myself, "I don't want to do any of this!" I know I want to teach/coach but...why not teach something more interesting? I'm taking "Origins of the Universe, the Earth, and Life" class that has me pretty fired up. So after thinking about it, I am going into science folks! Here's my plan:

Earth Science Education (major)
Biology Education (minor)
with a health "cluster" because I'm basically done with those classes, so that's no big deal.

We'll see how long that lasts! =]

In other news, I am interested in a lot of guys who are not interested in me. But oh what fun I've been having with them all! I hang out with a lot of guys and I have crushes on four or five, but really nothing is going on with any of them. Their loss! My FHE brother took me out to lunch yesterday, so I guess that counts as the first date of the semester, right?

I'm enjoying my time serving as Relief Society president. On Thursday we did an activity where we just had the girls come eat pizza and get their visiting teaching callings and their calling descriptions. It was no big deal; people came, ate pizza, got their calling, and left, but that was great because that's what I wanted!

I want to go snowboarding. I think I'll go paint my nails instead. Peace out!

Happy Australia Day! Eating Pavlova

Skittles bowling last Saturday night

This pic of my playing Frisbee made it in our school newspaper. =]

so busy i just might die

I am busy 24/7. It is crazy!

Last week I did some fun stuff. I went skittles bowling with a ton of friends. It snowed and I did some drifts in a big parking lot. I have 6 hours of church every Sunday. I worked 13 hours plus all my school. I currently have 5 students when I'm only supposed to have 3.

The attendance at Relief Society today was awful. I have like 40 girls and there were maybe 20 if I was lucky. Plus the stake relief society presidency was sitting in. That was awesome.

I think I should probably get a blessing from my FHE bros because my life is just go go go go go go all the live long day and I just don't know how long I can take it!

I really like this one boy. He's been here almost every day this week. But...pretty sure he just thinks I'm his friend. Lame.

I got to play frisbee and wallyball this week. I had a ba-jillion knockdowns.

I also had a snowball fight and learned about nuclear fusion. That was very exciting to me.

The end.

This Week

Hello all! Looks like right now will be the only time I have to blog this week (2:30 AM...I feel fine about that).

So far the semester has been pretty crazy. I know I'm going to have to rely on Heavenly Father to get me through all the stress! Class work has been pretty straight forward so far, but my work schedule is now in effect and it's just crazy how much I am doing "something" all day.

When I'm not in class, I go to the tutoring center and clock in for 15 minutes to see if anyone "needs anything" and then I clock out and do homework until the next hour and do that again. They do this to us at the beginning to weed out the flakes or those who don't really want this job, so I've been diligently attending to my duty of clocking in every hour on the hour for 15 minutes, asking if anything needs done (there never is; except today I made copies--woop woop) and then get to my homework.

I think this is fine, but I can't study there. Everyone is so loud so I can't wait for that part to be done so I can stop going there and I can go back to my peaceful solace in the first floor computer lab.

But yeah--work has been a big part of this week. Also, the frisbee players were banned from playing in the I-Center because it's "too dangerous" so they make us play in the Hart gym; where there is a two-foot drop all around the perimeter of the court. Yeah--THAT'S real safe when you're chasing down a frisbee looking nowhere but up. I declared that we should do a frisbee civil rights day. Maybe do some sort of sitting protest on the courts. It's just stupid. Ultimate players are athletes too! If they can play soccer in the I-Center, SURELY they we can toss a frisbee around. Idiots.

I went to the first devotional of the semester on Tuesday and it rocked my world it was so good.

I called my counselors this week too and had our first meeting. That was pretty chill. I picked chill girls so that was a relief (I didn't know any of them before I met them).

I got to go to lunch with my parents and Chase the other day. I'm having him over for Sunday dinner tomorrow.

In a few hours I'm going snowboarding all day. It will be good to get out and leave all the stress behind me and just have a few hours of solace on the hill.

I had a fun night tonight. A bunch of friends and I got together and had pizza, played games, and watched the new Planet of the Apes. If you're looking for an action movie, look elsewhere; I found it rather lame. But it was still good.

Well that's all for now. See you guys later

emergency walgreens trip

Upon arriving home from the gym tonight my roommate approached me in a hiffy pleading me to take her to the store. While inside, I began helping her find the items she so desperately needed. While skipping around the store (literally) to a song inside my head, an old male employee on his way to take cookie dough to the fridge said to me, "you're too happy."

I feel great about that.

I'm alive!

Hello all! Life is crazy. I have no life. I get up at 6:30 and go to bed at 10:30 after working all day until 7 or 8. I go to the gym after work all day so I literally crash every night!

I have a part time job. I'm a tutor at the reading center which helps students with disabilities or the students who are international and need a little extra help. The good news is, after I've studied what to teach them in our tutoring sessions, I can apply those same strategies to my own studies and get paid for it. It's funny to me to "learn" about study strategies because I already do them so I'm thinking "duh" when people around me are like "great idea!" So I'm going to basically get paid to do what I've always done with my school work, which is great.

Ultimate Frisbee is a no this semester. Groups get together at the I-Center to play, but last night we were banned because it's too dangerous. I want to throw an Ultimate civil rights day--Ultimate players are athletes too!

Boys--I love them. Cute ones are EVERYWHERE! I am so boy crazy it's not even funny. How do you pick just one when I want to flirt with them ALL???!!! That's easy--I don't choose just one! I am in love with all sorts of hotties...Stewart, Evan, Austin, Joseph, and I haven't even met all the hotties in my ward! YESSSSSSSS

I am currently thinking about changing my major. Guys--I think I'm a scientist. When I was little, I would look at stuff like a door and think, "I wonder what it would be like to be that door...I know it's not alive, but what would it be like to be what the door is?" Since then I've learned all about atoms which is what all matter is made out of. So when I was little I thought about what it would be like to be the atoms the door is made of I just didn't know it! I just love science. I'm in a "Origins of the Universe" science class this semester. It is hard, but it is awesome.

Speaking of classes, take a look at this schedule: (I'm taking 15 credits this semester)

Monday, Wednesday, Friday
7:45-8:45 Advanced Writing and Critical Thinking
9:00-10:00 Origins of the Universe
10:15-11:15 Nutrition

Tuesday, Thursday
7:45-8:45 Doctrine and Covenants
9:00-10:00 History and Philosophy of Education

On Mondays I also take an "Intro to Literary Studies" class and I'm taking a class for my job too, so it's insane! I get done early but I am working all afternoon doing tons of homework. Today for example...I was in the library from noon to 7:30...why does it take me so long to do all of it??

On top of all that I have exciting news: I have been called as the new Relief Society President!

*Here's the story; last year they rearranged all the wards, so I'm in a totally different stake and ward now than I was in the fall. My bishopric came over last week to meet us, and the 1st counselor Brother Kelley said to me, "They must've taken all the personality in Arco and put it inside you!" The next morning (Friday) I got a text from Bishop Kunz asking me to give a talk on Sunday. He told me I could pick my topic and to speak for 12 minutes. I decided to speak on moral agency because that is my favorite thing in the world to talk about (thank you Brother Webb and the best class ever; American Foundations)!!!! Sunday after I gave my talk I was sitting in Sunday school and Bishop asked me to see him after Relief Society. Kelsey Montgomery (she was Relief Society President last spring) turned to me when he left and said, "You are SO the new RS Pres!!!" Sure enough, that's what happened! I am excited but scared...but excited.

Before school started I went snowboarding at Targhee. They have a two for one coupon you can find if you have connections like I do, so if you're interested let me know I can hook you up! That was a great day, and I finally got carving DOWN! It finally clicked and I was racing down the mountain after that! I LOVE SNOWBOARDING! It's such a rush!

Now I'm just catching up on Bill O'Reilly and after I submit this I'm hitting the exercise room in our new lounge. Fabulous! I got a call from Alex the other day which made my day to hear from him for a minute, and I've been trying to hang out with Trisha but something always crops up! I'm planning on going to Rigby Saturday to watch Hailey play basketball. =] Huzzah! A blog post that didn't take me 100 years to write. Future posts will be similar. Peace out!

Kelsey