Going Home For Christmas

Thursday right after my English final, I get the opportunity to drive home for Christmas break. One of my best friends that's from my home ward and I are road tripping home. It should be an experience I can already tell she plans on stocking up on junk food and already has a play list of music to keep us occupied on the way home.
I am mostly excited for the fact that it will be a relaxing break to just sit back and not even think of school. It will be great to see everyone for a longer period of time. Even though I was home for Thanksgiving, it seemed like a rushed vacation. I cant wait for the break!

BYU vs. OSU Excitment

Being from Oregon, I have many friends that went to Oregon State University. I myself almost went there. The news I received Sunday night that OSU would be play BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl made me very excited. My school would be playing my best friends school. I quickly called home when I got the news and told my mom. She decided it would be best if we hosted a party at our house during the break to watch the game. Although I will be out number by rooting for BYU, the idea still made me very excited. I get to see my friends in a competitive yet fun fun way. I am excited to see everyone again and hopefully see a BYU win!

Bus Pass Misfortunes

This semester started impossible for me to keep track of my bus pass. It seemed like once a week it would disappear. Luckily it would show up again a few hours later sometimes the next day. It got annoying that I couldn't keep track of it. One afternoon I went to use the bus and of course it was missing again. I searched in all its normal spots but no luck. i sat and thought though when I last used it and where it could be. I had remember busing to a friends house and putting it in my backpack while I was there.
I tore everything out of my backpack and looked in the pages of everything. Nothing. A week or so went by and still no bus pass. I didn't want to buy a new one it was almost the same price I originally bought it for. I was out of ideas searched my room went to lost and found. It was no where to be found.
One night I decided to write thank you note to gifts I had received while here at BYU, I had kept the letters I had received in my backpack. I pulled them out to get the addresses one I was holding upside down. Out fell the bus pass. I was so upset I had never checked there, but I guess there is more good that comes out when you write thank you notes.

Care Package

Last night while I was deep in my studies wondering how I was going to get everything done and get enough studying in to do well on finals, there was a knock on the door that completely made my day. It was a finals survival package from my parents. It was a great surprise and made me feel less stressed about what I was doing. To have something good come completely changed my mood. In the bag was a BYU beanie, some candy bars, a hot chocolate mug with cocoa mix, a sticker, a highlighter and some pencils. All somewhat random, but it was a great edition to my day. It was like an early Christmas present.

Halloween Birthday Shopping

When I woke up Halloween morning with now holiday plans, it kind of depressed me. I got on facebook and found one member of my FHE was online we talked a bit and decided to throw a Halloween party and being as my roommates birthday was the next day we decided to incorporate a birthday celebration into the mix.
Within the next hour we were heading to Walmart to get party supplies and good party foods. As we walked past the discount bakery items the perfect cake stood out. It was a My Little Pony cake with a pony figurine and kaleidoscope acting like a castle. The rainbow colored frosting made it the best choice of a cake for her.
The party was great a lot of people showed up and we watched a movie. We surprised my roommate with the cake and we got the reaction we had hoped for. A surprise that there was a cake and then a good laugh when she saw it. Made for a great night.

Buying a Christmas Tree

Our apartment is so crazy. We are constantly working on random art projects. I knew it would only be a short time till the ideas for Christmas decorations came in. While in Oregon my mom bought me a nice one foot tree to help decorate the apartment. When I brought it back here it only sparked a few ideas although one was getting a taller actual size tree. We made our way to Walmart and there we bought a six foot tree lights of course, some candy canes that would work as ornaments and some wrapping paper to decorate around randomly. We now look very festive in our apartment and we are so ready for Christmas to be here.

Snow Adventure

One afternoon When I should be doing homework. My roommate and I keep looking out the window the snow calling us. The first problem was opening the blinds to see the very white snow globe that appeared to be outside our window. We couldn't take it any longer. We got bundled up and ready to take on whatever adventure the snow would take us on. We decided that an event like this needed to be documented the occasion. We grabbed a camera and made our way into the unknown (aka behind our apartment). Together we came up with some of the stupidest ideas although they did make great pictures. There was so much untouched snow we couldn't just leave it like that. After many random poses and we couldn't feel our toes and fingers anymore we headed back to our apartment content with pictures.

Bowling!

One of the perks in returning home for Thanksgiving break, was the fact that I got to see all my hometown friends again. It was so nice to see everyone and catch up. As a big group of we always love bowling. It was usually the activity of choice for weekends and summer vacation.

It would be an obvious choice on what we would do to reconnect. Lanes were reserved, cars were filled and we all made our way to the bowling alley. We all had a blast and learned more about everyone's new life away from home. I can't wait till Christmas break when there is more time to talk and hangout. It will be great.

Divine Comedy

I had the pleasure last Saturday to enjoy one of BYU's finest comedy shows, Divine Comedy. I was truly a pleasure. It was the most perfect showing to go to being as it was there Best of 2009 show. Each act always left me and the 750 people in the JSB auditorium laughing. There great parody of Hercules was hilarious using Donny Osmond as a Zeus figure was a brilliant idea. I would defiantly pay money to see that again. Also I would suggest it to all, it is worth your time.

Swine Flu

Swine flu has never really scared me at all. Some people I feel exaggerate the matter. I watched a few people on the plane on my way back to Oregon for Thanksgiving. One lady was wearing a mask and was sterile with everything she did. Another Lady, in fact the woman right next to me pulled out disinfectant wipes and began wiping everything down around here to avoid any germ that could possibly be around. I found both acts a little uncalled for.
I have debated getting the vaccine for swine flu although if I can get away with it I try to avoid needles as much as possible. Its still up in the air for me.

Thanksgiving with Friends and Family

I really enjoyed going home to see everyone for Thanksgiving. It was great to see my family as well as my extended family after weeks if separation. I was able to see most of my ward while at our current young woman's president annual pie night. She loves to cook and makes roughly 40 pies for the ward and her neighbors to enjoy. Its a great social outing that the ward always looks forward to. My favorite pie that she makes every year would be the peanut butter pie. Always really good.
For the actual Thanksgiving dinner we headed to the coast to my grandparents house. I loved seeing most of my dads brothers and their families. Unfortunately, I guess going away to college doesn't give you the right to the adult table quite yet. I enjoyed my dinner while helping younger cousins eat their own dinner. What a great Thanksgiving.

Weird Welcoming

Upon returning home for Thanksgiving break, I was able to get back in time for my sister's sports dessert where she would be lettering in cross country as a freshman. I was excited to be there to see this big event for her. I also was excited to see old friends that were still in high school and old teachers and coaches.
Unfortunately when I got there I didn't get the welcoming I expected. I got a few "Oh hi Gillian's" but other than that and a few hugs I realized that I had moved on from high school and that the people there had told the seniors goodbye last June and had moved on into the new school year with the mentality that they had moved up in the school.
It made for an interesting night, but I was able to see my sister letter and be awarded most improved runner. It was great to see her and her achievements.

Bump in the Night

One interesting night right after family home evening. There was a loud energetic knock on the door. My roommate and I both confused walked down the hallway to the door. We opened the door and there are three guys standing there enthusiastic smiles on there faces the taller of the three made his way to the middle of the room. He stood there and looked around after a few seconds he asks if there is anything he can do. Both my roommate and I are both in a puzzled state, we had no clue what to say to that. He turns and sees our ironing board out and the mail we had placed on it. His grand idea was to iron our mail. After a minute of confusion they leave and make there way across the hall to the apartment there and start the cycle again with our neighbors.
A few hours later we hear another knock on the door. We open the door to see a police woman. She informs us that she was called because of some suspicious boys and she needed other opinions on the matter. Being questioned by the police and having weird boys come to your apartment made for an interesting night. Turns out they were just bored and felt like being social.

A Very Rough Draft for a Personal Narrative

Nobody predicted the events that affected many lives.
It was hard to see around me. I had to grab off memory. I tried to envision my surroundings to make sure I was grabbing the appropriate things. Then I heard what I was dreading. I turned around to see a large flow of water rushing down the staircase to our basement like a river. I could feel the cold water surrounding about mid shin. What I had loaded in my crate was going to have to do. I felt my way around avoiding our pool table, couch and entertainment center. I slowly made my way up the stairs, moving against the current of the water flowing down. I looked down one last time, to the bottom floor of my house and realized it would never be the same again.
Two years earlier:
“Family meeting in ten minutes,” my dad said while popping his head into my room. I came to a pausing point in my homework and headed to the living room where everyone was already waiting for my dad with curious looks on their faces. I sat between my two siblings just as my dad walked into the room. The attention instantly went to him; he went to the front of the room. He stood before us trying to find words. “We are going to move across town to a bigger house. We need the extra storage room and we need to follow the prophet’s council and get more room for food storage,” he informed us. “More news that isn’t as exciting. The prophet has repeatedly told us that we need to be out of debt. Your mother and I have decided to take this more seriously, this means less eating out and we may need to lose a couple of luxuries to meet this goal.”
We all sat quietly unsure on what to say. Whatever my dad said went in the household. His tall, broad appearance helped us learn quickly to never argue back when he made a decision. We all knew what this message entailed. We would need to cut back on certain conveniences and make sure that we ate before going out of town, because we would not be stopping. The more each of us thought about this the more we realized it wasn’t a difficult thing that was asked of us.

Within the next year we had moved and our attempt to get out of debt was working. We were eating dinner one warm night in September, when my dad announced he had an announcement. “Thanks to your great efforts we are officially out of debt excluding the house.” I was so ecstatic that our diligence to the task asked of us had paid off.
Two months later on 3rd of December, 2007 my dad was awoken to my brother standing above him. “Dad, there is water on the ground down stairs,” my brother informed him. My dad sleepily rolled out and walked with my brother down the stairs. Sure enough there was a good inch covering the entire surface of our floor. The rest of the family was awaken. We all walked down the stairs half asleep. “Ok everyone everything up to a foot off the ground needs to be moved up onto a higher shelf.
I walked slowly down the stairs the next morning the water had receded a little, but there was a muddy swimming pool in my basement.
If we hadn’t been out of debt, we wouldn’t have had enough money to get through the situation. The fact that we had an uncharged credit card helped us move forward and get started on the rebuilding process.

More FHE Craziness

I honestly don't know where our FHE dad comes up with the randomness, but we yet again had another interesting Monday night. Our FHE dad discovered that if you fill your mouth with cornstarch and blow it into a lite match that it will cause a huge fire ball. It is very entertaining to watch but the taste of corn starch in your mouth is a very unpleasant experience. It gets worse when you sit there with it in your mouth and when you go to do it you blow out the flame instead of expanding the flame. This happened to me multiple time I think I had only one good one.

(In picture above)Me Failing :(

Some of the and turns out most dangerous one we did was when we all went at the same time. It did have the biggest flame but also gave off a lot of heat. We really didn't think this through prior to that moment and we were all shocked at the outcome. All in all it made of another messy and memorable evening.

Some people just shine at this kind of thing.

Flour Fights!!!

One of the most memorable FHE my group has had thus far would have to be the recent flour fight. The biggest reason that made it memorable was my apartments attempt to dress the part. Our thinking, go big or stay home. We were asked to dress in dark colors to make sure that the flour appeared to see the effect. My roommates and I decided that the best way to go was all black in the goofiest way possible. Go big or stay home. This included; masks, black leggings, basketball shorts, black knee socks and long sleeve black shirt. We also made up great names to match the part.

The fight itself was fun. It was guys vs. girls, we really didn't set winners but if you look at the girls did get a little more dirty. this made for a very entertaining evening.

Reasurance on Major

So for the past 3 years I have been interested in being a pharmacist. I worked at one and got more interested. Science has always come naturally for me, so it seemed like a good fit for me. The only science class I hadn't taken prior to coming to BYU was chemistry, which is the basis of a pharmacist. BIG MISTAKE!!! First two weeks of chemistry I had no clue what was going on. This had me really wondering if I had chosen the right career to pursue. I decided after I bombed the first test that possibly I should get some help or I was going to fail my first science class of my freshman year.
I went about getting a tutor, he has helped tremendously! In just two session I was able to understand what was going on in lecture. And it just keeps on getting better. It has become one of my favorite classes. I am very happy I no longer doubt that science should be my major to get a job in Pharmacy. It was truly an exciting moment.

Wildest Dreams Coming True

So pretty much I have wanted to be able to do a back flip for the longest time. For the past few years I have decided that if I ever learned how to do one my life would be complete. It's that big of a deal to me. So anyway a few weeks ago in my hip hop club I had the opportunity to do an assisted back flip, I was super excited and turned to see who my partner was. It happened to be a very skinny guy, six foot and 140 lbs, with absolutely no muscle. Needless to say we had a few attempts that ended very scary for myself. Luckily I had a spotter to save my head from crashing to the ground numerous times.
As I told this story to my friends I was informed that one them is very skilled when it comes to flips. He also noted he has taught multiple people to do them. He was even so generous to offer his assistance in making my life long dream come true. This truly made my day and if I could learn I will be the happiest person on the face of the planet.

The Cookie Monster

Not that many things annoy me in my life, but when you make a batch of delicious cookies to enjoy and they slowly disappear, you not only get a little upset you get curious. Where did those cookies disappear to? As I told people of the situation, it became apparent that I wasn't the only one with cookies disappearing, it is a common problem through out. This has led me to realize that there is a cookie monster on the loose and he is stealing from everyone. I decided to make an investigation of it. It made for an interesting day.

All and all I caught the cookie monster red handed!!!

Transition

Before my journey over here I was told that the homework load would be more than anything I had ever experienced through all my years of school. At the time I kind of listened to the words of my parents, but didn't fully listen to their warnings. This would be a typical teenager move on my part. I found while here that I actually have to study beyond just reading the text book. Also learned that papers are written on a regular basis, I've averaged two a week. I've realized that high school was a breeze and I was able to hang out with friends on school nights, be involved with three hours of practice or lounge around with no worries. While in college my life is devoted to work, I literaly live on my laptop. This has required me to change my habits and buckle down.

What I am trying to say is my life has changed and shall be like this the next four years. I learned to listen to the advice that my parents give me.