Things That I Love:

Winter has arrived in Logan. There is snow on the ground. And I am not happy about it. So I figured a post full of things I love needed to happen. Here it is!

• Autumn in Logan. Driving through Logan Canyon and seeing the beautiful trees.
• Leggings, boots, and legwarmers. I love layering!
• Lean Cuisine. 3 1/2 minutes in the microwave and I don't have to cook.
• An excuse to wear my footie pajamas... all the time.
• Gloves with the fold-over mitten top.
• Basketball games.
• Cleaning out pumpkins. Not carving them.
• Drinking hot cocoa made in a coco-motion.
• Scary movies.
• The second floor of the library. I have my spot.
• Getting emails.
  
• Oreos. Halloween style.
• Grooveshark and my studying playlist.

Kimmi

Tomorrow my little sister turns 18! It is crazy how fast time is going by.

She is one of the craziest people I know and isn't afraid to be herself.

She doesn't let people push her around or tell her what to do. She is very blunt and open and will let you know what's up.

She is cute and blonde and tall. So basically she is perfect. She is a basketball star.

She is a country girl at heart and wears pink cowboy boot slippers.

She knows the entire fire dance from the Proposal. Pretty Legit!

She is pretty awesome. I guess you could say that I kind of love that she is my sister.

Happy Birthday Kimmi!!!

Oh Joy

Fall break is this wonderful weekend in the middle of October where Friday classes are held on Thursday and then there are no classes on Friday. Everybody who is anybody takes off on a weekend adventure. Well here's my exciting weekend:

First of all, I only have Tuesday/Thursday classes so it was probably the coolest thing ever that I only had to go to class on Tuesday. And then I was done for an entire week. It was amazing!

Second, we have rotating weekend shifts at the library and of course my weekend just so happened to fall on fall break. So I didn't get to go anywhere.

But I still had a great weekend! Thursday night Amy came up to Logan and we had an A-Team girls night. We went out for pizza and then watched Life As We Know It. It was great and I love those girls. Friday night Madi invited me to carve pumpkins with some of her friends and we baked pumpkin seeds. It was also a ton of fun! Saturday night I went to the rec center and played some crazy lightning, volleyball, and dodge ball games. So my weekend wasn't extraordinarily exciting, but it was definitely fall break worthy.

Now for my funny stories:

1) Laundry. Friday I went to do laundry at least five different times and the washers were always being used! I was so frustrated. So Saturday I had to do five loads and it was pretty crazy. I went to go pick up my last batch of laundry and saw something outside the laundry room door.

IT WAS A SNAKE!!!

I ran back to my apartment and almost had a panic attack. Here' s the background. I hate snakes. I can't even look at a book of snakes or see one on TV without semi-freaking out. I really really hate snakes. So I sent my two roomies out to check on it and Kaela said that it was probably a fake one that someone set out and then watched my reaction. (I really didn't like that.) But they came back and yes, it was a real snake. Luckily Tren and I had decided to bake a tres leches cake (which turned out pretty darn good....we are champs.) And of course because Tren is a boy he had the privilege of moving the snake because I still needed to get my laundry out. One of my dryers still had 12 minutes but there was no way I was going to go back. It might be a while before I strike up the courage to do laundry again. I got made fun of, a lot. But it is only because I am sincerely terrified of snakes. I don't make fun of people and their fears! I had a couple of traumatizing experiences as a child. That's all.

2) Butt Ball. This game is very similar to Wall Ball, like most kids played in elementary school. We had about twelve people in a racquetball court and we threw a racquetball against the wall and then had to catch it and then throw it again. If the ball touched you and you didn't catch it, you had to run and touch the wall before the ball did and if you didn't make it you got a strike. After three strikes, you had to stand against the wall and then everyone got to throw the ball once at your butt. Yep, it was pretty brutal. So there was one instance that I had to run for the wall, but I didn't exactly slow down so I slammed into the wall with my hands and it kind of jolted my entire body. But hey, I made it! Well, then my back started to hurt, a lot. And it got to the point that I was walking like a crippled grandma and had sharp pains shooting through my lower back. It was not OK. Today it feels a lot better, just really tight and sore and if I let the Ibuprofen wear off it starts to hurt. But no big deal. I think I'll survive. I don't like butt ball, even though I never had three strikes or got hit in the butt. That games is still way too crazy for me!

3) Giggles. I am easily amused. That is a fact. I had a couple of crazy giggle fits this weekend and I feel that they are definitely blog worthy. There was a line in the movie Thursday night that left me laughing for five minutes straight. It wasn't even a good line. But I still was almost hyperventilating because I couldn't stop laughing. Today in church we had a high council speaker. Out of no where, he pulled a tool used for measuring angles out of his pocket. Totally unexpected and somewhat hilarious. Then he went on to compare the gospel to the Lord of the Rings. I may have been irreverent with my giggles. But they were well deserved.

Parents

I have been reading a book called "Extremes: How to Keep Your Virtues From Becoming Vices" by Robert Eaton and it has really changed my perspective on a lot of things. I started reading it in airports down in South America and I decided today that I need to finish it. I just read a chapter that talks about parenting and how to find the balance between being too lenient and too overpowering. It made me reflect back on high school and the way my parents handled different situations.

We had rules and my parents were usually firm on those rules. Curfew was midnight. I hated it. But now I am ready for bed by 11 every night. There really is no reason to stay out past midnight unless something is going on. I always wanted to just because everyone else could. As my roommate Kaela has reminded me several times, "The Holy Ghost goes to bed at midnight and so should you." My mom would wait up for me to get home every weekend or have me come in to tell her I was home. I always thought it was so she could make sure I was on time, but now I see that it was because she loved me and wanted to make sure I was in and safe.

I got to drive the family car when I lived at home and I had to put gas in it. It was a pain, but why did I ever complain? Welcome to life, you have to take care of yourself.

I can't even remember the last time I was grounded. That was one type of punishment that we didn't see too often. In fact, I think I probably got grounded three or four times past the age of 12. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a total angel child, but I did have a conscience and usually freaked out and ratted myself out when I did disobey my parents. I think they liked it when I did that.

I am paying for my education. I am lucky because my parents are letting me use their car and they cover those expenses as well as my cellphone. But other than that, I am self-reliant and I wouldn't have it any other way. There are times that I have to sit out of activities because I am waiting for payday but it makes me feel grown up when I have to look over my budget. I am such a geek.

I guess what I am trying to get at it is my parents really did know how to balance being lenient and overprotective. We had our disagreements at times but overall living at home was great. Congrats! One child down...three more to go!

Question of the Day:

Why do you do what you do? This was a question that was presented to us at church today. What motivates you to get out of bed, go to school and work, be nice to people, or make good choices? Really though, what is it? Life would be so much easier if we never had to do anything.

The motivating factor is definitely faith. We all have some degree of faith in things to come. Obviously if we didn't believe that there were great and wonderful things to come, we wouldn't even try.

Erin's lesson really got me thinking. How is my faith doing? I feel like I have really been screwing that one up lately. I have been too caught up in myself and worrying about every little thing that's been going on that I have forgotten to take a step back and look at the big picture. Everything happens for a reason and if I am living my life and doing what I am supposed to, then things are bound to eventually work out. We are told that we won't be given trials that we can't handle and they will only last a little while. But man, life is hard!

I know this is all super obvious, but sometimes it does help to write it out and reevaluate where I stand. I do what I do because I know that my Heavenly Father has a plan for me and so many blessings that he is just waiting to give me. I need to exercise more faith and be more optimistic. I have so much to look forward to in life. I do what I do because I am alive and I love my life. I have an amazing family and great friends. I have a year left of my college education. I have been to South America. I have always had good health. I have a job. I have shelter and food. Honestly, I am so blessed and really love my life. I'm thinking I might have another long list of gratitude coming on....get excited!

Rain: Part II

Ok so in the other post I was using rain as symbolism.

Then I left work.
And it began to rain.
I was soaked to the core.
Not a happy camper.

Rain

Have you ever noticed that on those days when it unexpectedly rains... it pours? And it is always when you really really don't want the rain.

Welcome to my life.

I do love the rain; when it is on my terms.

Is that too much to ask? :)

Weekend Activity? I think so!

This is what I discovered today: Ming Makes Cupcakes. They all look so amazing and delicious! It probably wasn't the brightest idea to look over this site while starving. But I'm taking on the Ming challenge (there is no actual challenge; I am creating it). I want to make one of these cupcake recipes a week...or maybe every other week....until I have mastered the art of cupcakes and tried them all. I am kind of excited....ok maybe I'm really excited. Check out the site, it will make you want cupcakes!!!