supplemental to my Christmas card

A Christmas post script, if you will:

at the end of august and also sometime somewhere in the middle of between now and then, I went to Provo to see Brooklyn.

we went to the temple... (not to get married, to do baptisms. Just in case that was unclear)






I read her our favorite love story...



We both tried to fit into the cupboard. Her legs were too long...



...and mine hips were too big.



For the later trip we went to the BYU-TCU football game. Not pretty, but very fun :)



Then I got Brooklyn the most amazing Christmas present known to man! What is it, you ask? Sorry, I can't say. It would blow your mind. Also, it's not Christmas yet!



THE END
I hope you are happy now Brooklyn :)



(sorry it's sideways :\ Turn your head)

Merry Christmas!

Here is a Christmas card from me to you! I'm not sending a card out, but here's a little review of what I've been up to this year. With a lot of pictures. Maybe. I'm not sure what I've going to say yet.

Well, at 11pm Christmas eve (2008) I started packing for college, and at 4:30 am Christmas day, I left home forever for college. We drove to Logan and I cried for about the first 6 hours, but was happy when we got there since I was going to be with my family, who I love :)

At the beginning of January (I think the 4th or 5th?) I got to Rexburg and got all moved in to my apartment. I think the first night was the very hardest for me. For various reasons, none of my roommates were there and I was all alone for the first time. I felt like my parents were abandoning me. I cried for about the first 20 minutes, found the presents they left tucked under my covers, read my scriptures, and fell asleep. After the initial shock, I think I realized that I was ready to start on my new, big adventure.



even though I didn't know any of my roommates prior to this semester, we all got along great! I really lucked out and couldn't have been happier if I had hand picked five other girls to live with.

First semester ended great. I had never been a "straight-A" student in high school, but out of the six classes I took, I ended up with five A's and one B. This was amazing to me and should be to you too :)

Second semester was a little more eventful. I'd been having pretty bad stomach aches for as long as I could remember, but for the 18 months prior to this time they were pretty awful. I'd had upwards of seven doctors in CDA but got nothing better than "you pulled a muscle" and "here's some birth control pills" but nothing conclusive or even a little bit helpful. One day, around June I think, during sacrament meeting I started feeling like my time on earth was limited and I needed someone to read me my last rights. I literally was bawling my eyes out in the middle of church. The way I was holding my side and crying the bishopric thought I might have appendicitis so they gave me a beautiful blessing, promising that I would find out what's wrong and be healed, and my roommates carted me off to the emergency room at madison memorial hospital. They didn't really do anything but give me some monster shot in the behind (Amanda was holding my hand, she could tell you how the nurse rammed that thing into my hip. It was brutal!), took some blood samples, and sent me home, but it didn't really help. This is getting longer than I meant it to, so I'll try to condense the rest. I had to go to the health center on campus to get the results of the blood tests and the doctor there told me he'd like to figure out what's wrong (Hallelujah! A doctor who cares!!). He did a bunch of test and thought I have celiac disease. An endoscopy confirmed it and now I cry every time I go grocery shopping, but I'm getting better at eating gluten free.
To counteract the anemia caused by my celiac disease, I had to have an iron infusion which was the pits. The hospital in rexburg is a joke and something that took four hours took about eight. It took about two hours waiting with a needle in my arm that wasn't actually hooked up to anything. It was actually pretty painful but my wonderful, beautiful roommate Amanda read stories to me and entertained me and shoved smarties in my mouth whenever I started crying.





gross. It looked like they were infusing me with espresso. And it made me throw up the sonic cheeseburger that Amanda and Luke smuggled into my hospital room :)

Well, then second semester ended and, considering that I was in the hospital for half the semester AND taking 18 credits (!!!) I passed with six A's and two B's. I was not expecting that and was very proud of myself!

School ended and I moved to Logan to work at my parent's new car wash. In August one of my biggest dreams came true and I got to be an EFY (Especially for Youth) counselor! I counseled (ha) for one week with my cousin Madi in Ogden. It was different than I expected but SO AMAZING! Such a spiritual high and I got to love "my girls" so SO much! They were all so beautiful and so full of the spirit and I am so blessed that the Lord sent them to me to bless my life.



Me with my girls. We're all being goofy but it's the only one where you can see all of our faces :)



Me and Madi one night at "EFC" (Especially for Counselors. The party we had after the kidlets went home for the night)



Kjarinda, Me, and Katy. We were EFY participants all the way back in 2005 and I hadn't seen either of them since, so it was crazy fun that we all got to be counselors together :)



Me, Sean, And Lauren. We taught FSOY (for the strength of youth) in the same room. We were being cool and put our name tags in our hair



A few weeks later my roommate Kim got married, so Luke and I went to Rexburg for her open house






And...well, nothing too eventful has happened since August. I just work at about 6:30 every morning and then go home and hang out with my mom until it's time to go to sleep. Then repeat. Sometimes I get to hang out just me and Lexi, which I love. I like to think that I'm her favorite aunt, but that may have something to do with the fact that I'm the aunt that lives closest and the only one she sees on a regular basis.



So now I'm getting ready to go back and start round two of college and I can't wait! I'm rooming with Amanda again and one of my good friends from high school, Lizzy. It's going to be so nice to have a church calling and classes and something to keep me busy again. SO that's my year in review.

Merry Christmas, everyone :)

Color test. Weird

This is all very true about me. It's interesting.

Hailee took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! ""Looking to make a good impression and be recogniz..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

what's the opposite of feminist?

So...I work at a car wash. Every day I greet and talk to hundreds of people in their cars*
When a couple pulls up; whether they are old and wrinkly or young and probably driving without their parents for the first time; married or just dating** SEVEN out of TEN times,
T H E G I R L I S D R I V I N G ! !

I don't understand this! The only time I have EVER driven a boyfriend (the one and a half that I have had) anywhere, was when Luke and I went to Greenbluff and that was only because I didn't want him to know where we were going***. But like...even times when we needed to take my truck somewhere, I would always let him (whoever "he" happened to be at the time) drive.
EXAMPLE: I'm writing this at work, and somewhere in the middle of the last paragraph I had to go wash three cars. THRICE (that's a fun word) they were married couples, and THRICE (yep, I used it again) the girl was driving.
It just doesn't make sense to my brain! Am I backwards for thinking that the man should always drive (unless he's recently been under the influence of alcohol or anesthetics)? Would my feminist sisters out there weep and wail and gnash their teeth to read this? Am I un-doing what they've worked for?

I don't know.


But I still think it's weird

*Well, we'd LIKE to have hundreds of customers, anyway :]

**Hey, I go to BYU Idaho. It's pretty much engrained into my brain to check peoples' hands for wedding bands. It's like a reflex now.

***It ended up not mattering. The boy grew up in Post Falls and had never even HEARD of Greenbluff! What?!

Blog hopping

I don't know if there's a technical term for it in the blogging world, or maybe it really is "blog hopping".

You know how, on their blogs, people have links to their friends' blogs? Sometimes I just click on random peoples' blogs and do what I call blog hopping. I feel like a creeper because, even though I try to stay on the crafty, photography, commercial blogs, a lot of time I end up on family blogs and reading all about Jane Doe and her wonderful husband and kids. Like I said, it makes me feel like a creeper.

But it makes me wonder if anyone ever blog hops to my blog. If so, Welcome, Kind Stranger. Sorry my blog is so lame.

Blinkers

Ever since I was little, when I was stopped at any kind of intersection with the blinker on, I would look around and see if any of the cars around me had their blinkers match each other or mine.

Last week on the way home from work I was in the middle of the intersection waiting for a break in cars so I could turn left. Out of habit I started to look around. To my right: no go. Behind me: Negative, Ghostrider. Across from me: What? YES! THERE! Lo and behold was a truck with a blinker going the exact same pace as mine. Now, I'd had false positives before. You know what I'm talking about, where they look like they're going the same for a few seconds, but in reality one is always faster than the other? But NO! This was the REAL DEAL! Unfortunately, achieving my life-long dream put me into such a state of shock that I didn't bother to look what make and model the car was. All I know is that it was an older truck (mid 90's, probably) and white.

But the point is...now when I'm at intersections, I don't know what to do with my life Continue the search? It was a short lived victory, to say the least.

Googles

I could come up with a witty beginning, but I'm on a trytophan hangover from yesterday and the witty part of my brain is temporarily broken. So I'll just start with: I have too much time on my hands at work when I start at 6:30 and we don't get busy until more of the world is awake. Recently I've discovered a whole bunch of different types of googles! Here are some of my favorites: (i turned thim into links. Go ahead and click on them--you know you want to!)

pink google
(also purple, blue, green)

givoogle
For every 1000 hits each ad gets, the companies donate money to cancer research. I only use this one now

gizzoogle
i don't actually know how to use this one, but it's fun to say "gizzoogle"

elgooG
everything is backwards!

googlegooglegooglegoogle
give you four separate google browsers in one window

mystery google
gives you the results from the person before you

The end.
Also, happy thanksgiving yesterday!
The end for reals.

Gondwanaland, Pangaea, etc.

At work we have a big map of the world on one of the walls and as I was a-lookin' at it yesterday, I was thinking about how cool it was that it all used to be one land mass. And then I had a thought that was something like: I wonder who the first person to look at the world and think "hey, these look like they'd fit together like a puzzle" was, and how they felt?
Because, come on, that would be pretty stinking exciting. I picture him sitting at his desk, having the thought, letting it sink in for a second, and giddily calling a co-scientist over to see if his new theory was plausible. And then they start jumping up and down and calling all of their other co-workers over to share in their new found discovery.

Well, however it happened, it must have pretty cool

Photography makes me happy

The weekend before General Conference, mom and Phil and I took a Sunday drive up Logan Canyon to look at the fall colors. We had planned to go back early the next sunday morning because the colors would have deepened and there would have been some great morning shots that, when we were there, were in the shade. Unfortunately, that Sunday morning it rained and quickly after that, the colors were gone and everything was brown.

But while we were driving and I was taking pictures, I was so happy. The happiest I've felt in a really long time. I know I have a natural talent for picture taking. With training and experience, I know I could be really good! But something holds me back. If I thought it was practical, I would change my major to photography. But I love working with disabled kids and have this hunger to help people that I don't think photography would fill. But I'm going to teach myself and maybe one day I'll be as good as my favorite photographer right now, Rebekah Westover (here's her blog (which I like best) and here's her website (which

is also fantastic))

Anyway, here are some of my favorites that I took.

I envy Mr. Van Winkle

Have you ever got (gotten?) to a point in your life where it just hurts too much, emotionally speaking, to be...conscious? Where you just want to slip into inky black numbness until you forget about everything troubling you, but you can't even fall asleep because of the things you can't get out of your head?

I'm there. I hate it.

Rip Van Winkle had the right idea, I think.

Rexburg

I miss seeing this temple every day. Before class. Between classes. After class. Walking home from the library at 11:30 at night. I love that, from the right spot, I can see it from my apartment.

My roommate Amanda and I tried every chance we got to do baptisms last semester. Whenever we went, there were so many people, the director had to turn us away because the baptistry was full. Every. Single. Time. As frustrating as it was, it's so great to know that there are so many people willing to do the Lord's work that they can't accommodate everyone! The way I see it, there are 3 ways they can fix this.

1) The current temple walk-in hours are 8am-3pm. When you're in class from 9-3, there's no way. I suggest they increase the hours.

2) Build another baptistry on the side of the temple

3) Build another temple in Rexburg!

I think #3 is the best

As much as I'm getting used to Logan, I really love Rexburg. I can't wait to go back!

XY?

I think my job is turning me into a boy.
Reason number 1-- I dream about cars. Every night. Now, I've always loved cars and been a little more into them than the average girl, but this is just getting ridiculous! Every single night I have at least one vivid dream and/or nightmare about cars.

Reason number 2-- I wear boy clothes more than I wear girl clothes now. My work uniform? Boy underarmor. Boy pants. Boy dress shirt. Boy sweatshirt. Boy coat. (Unisex shoes but still 50% boy) The rare occasion when I go out to do something and get to wear my cute girl clothes, I get really confused. Why are the buttons and zippers on the wrong side? Oh yeah, that's the right side for a girl.

I'm getting worried. I'll let you know when I start growing facial hair.

Leap

During my first semester of college there was a writing class, English 111, that I was required to take. I ended up LOVING my teacher! In fact, she's probably my favorite teacher so far. Anyway, a few weeks into the class we read an excerpt from an essay written by Brian Doyle. The essay is called "Leap" and was written about September 11th as seen from the people on the ground outside the trade center towers. More specifically it's about watching people jump from the towers--two people in particular. When we first read it in class, it was so powerful and even now I can't read it without getting choked up. But it was this next passage especially that I love so much. It might be strange, but I used to doodle it over and over again all the time during classes. Today was the first time in months that I'd even thought of it, but I want to share it with you. It goes:

I keep going back to his hand and her hand, nestled in each other with such extraordinary, ordinary, succinct, ancient, naked, perfect, stunning, simple, ferocious love.

Read it again. The second time, think about every adjective as it pertains to love. I've had this passage memorized for months; drawn it over, and over, and over, and over again. But every time I do, it just...it's just so beautiful, it makes my heart hurt. When I finally do get married, that's the kind of love I want. 

 The rest of the essay is really short and very, very powerful and can be found here

Dancing

I'm not very graceful. Growing up I was more of the basketball/softball/polevault type than the ballet/tap/jazz type of girl, but so often now I wish I was a decent dancer. Anyway, I dance at school, for those of you who don't know. I've taken two semesters of ballroom and one of modern. I completely stink at modern and am slightly better at ballroom but I LOVE ballroom dancing and watching other people dance and pretending it's me. 

My favorite TV show right now is "So You Think You Can Dance" and this is my favorite video from last season (season 5). It's kind of a sad video, but watching it makes me...happy? Not exactly, but it's just so beautiful. I love it :) And I want to share it with you all so here goes:

(ps: you don't get to hear the story behind it so it kind of looks like he's going to kill/eat her, which makes sense when you know that he represents an addiction)

 I don't know how to post just the video so here's the link. Please watch it?

I was an EFY counselor!!

I realized that I never posted about my EFY experience this summer!

After waiting since I was 13 to be an EFY counselor, my dream finally came true! My cousin Madi and I got to be counselors in Ogden and it was so much fun! Different than being a participant, but I loved it all the same. This is me with my beautiful girlies who I love and miss very very much. They are all so sweet and beautiful and they strengthened me with their testimonies and love. 

 From left to right: Lexi, Cece, Mckenna, Jill, Mekayla, Carly, Me, Jasmine, McKenzi, and Sheila. I love you girls!

These are my co counselors-- Kristina, Talmage, and Sean. Sean also has celiac disease and saved me from trying to live for an entire week off of nut thins, craisins, and princess fruit snacks. Thanks Sean :)

Also I found out today that Kristina and I have church in the same building and I almost started crying when I saw her. It's not like I know her better than anyone here, it was just good to see someone that I kind of know. She's the greatest girl ever and I just love her. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I got to be a counselor with her--she taught me how to be better.

Service Abroad

I'm dropping out of school and moving to Russia!

maybe:)

I've found a program called international language program (ILP) that sounds like the most amazing thing in the world! You either go to Russia, the Ukraine, China, or Mexico for somewhere between 4-6 months and teach english to little kids! It's through the "dualingual system" developed by a former BYU professor, which basically means that you don't need to know the child's native language to teach. And they really stress on the website how it's more like having a party every day than teaching because it's through things like playacting, dancing, cooking, and just playing around that the children learn--how fun! And I want to go to Russia, which runs from mid-January to June, so I'd miss both semesters but I don't really care:) Since I'm technically going to be a teacher anyways, I think this would be a great opportunity.

AND (oh man, this just keeps getting better!) though it's not run by the church, they stress very strongly that the standards they expect you and your host families to live by is very similar to that of the honor code at BYU or BYU-I. 

I've wanted to do some type of study abroad for a long time, and while I can take a few credits online while I do this, it's more of a service abroad than study abroad but I want to do it SO BAD! AND, it's less than three thousand dollars for the whole time, which is like...less than tuition alone. PLUS, when you go to Russia, you get the opportunity to travel to the Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, and Sweden! Plus bi-weekly lessons in Russian language and culture.

And then I can go on a mission to Russia in 3 years

:]

http://www.ilp.org/

Endoscopy

Everything went great yesterday, thanks to everyone who kept me in their prayers. I don't remember much about the surgery-- I was supposed to swallow the scope while I was still awake but I told the doctor I didn't think I could do it and he was really nice and put me to sleep before he...um...scoped me. And that was the last thing I remember before waking up three hours later! 

The people at this hospital (EIRMAC, in IF) were a LOT nicer than the people at Madison Memorial. If I have to go back to get another iron transfusion, I'm going to EIRMAC. 

So now we wait about a week for a definite diagnosis and then I'll meet with a dietician! Eating gluten free is a little hard, but it's fun when I can find new things that taste good:)

Recently

So. For the last few years I've been having this really weird mysterious abdominal pain that 5 CDA doctors continually mis-diagnose as. . . ovarian cysts. . . pulled muscle. . . and various other WRONG things. Well I got to rexburg and FINALLY found out what it is! The doctor here on campus is like 95% sure I have Celiac Disease, which is an allergy/intolerance to gluten. Everything has gluten in it. EVERYTHING has gluten in it! So. . . scene-- I'm at his office and he basically tells me "You have celiac disease. Bye." So I went home and called my mom and my dad and they both said i should go and buy gluten free food. Which is what I did. It was a pretty big shock and I definitely cried a lot, but I gave all of my gluten-full food to my roommates and hit up the health food section at Broulims. But then, my mom called him the next morning and he told her that I should eat like I have been until they can do a biopsy of my small intestine. BIOSPY! That's surgery!

 So blah blah blah mom picked me up and I spent last weekend in Logan, friday night in IF at Patti and Nathan's, then went to a doctor in IF who FINALLY (this is doctor number SIX, mind you) decides to do something about my iron, as well. Yesterday I went to the hospital at 1:30 to get an iron infusion that they told me would take two hours and I would be out by 4 at the latest. WRONG! I finally get checked in at 2 and they take me to some pediatric room so amanda and I stole a whole bunch of candy and stickers :) About 2:30 they came in and put the IV needle in my arm, but still no iron. About 3 they transfered me to a room with a TV, which was nice. 3:45 rolls around and they FINALLY hooked me to the bag of iron, which looked more like motor oil or pepsi syrup or espresso or something. Well after about an hour, which is supposed to be halfway through, we made the observation that there wasn't very much of the stuff gone out of the bag. A few minutes later the nurse comes in and says "Whoops, we lied! We usually don't give this much to people, so it's going to be four hours instead of two!"

kill me

So I suffered through four more hours of my arm feeling like it was falling off (one of the nurses nicely bumped up the speed with which it was going in, which was pretty fast and my arm hurt really bad), a few bites of hospital food (replaced by a smuggled sonic burger and tots), and eventually went home. 

They didn't tell me until they were taking the IV out that this thing has negative side affects. I felt like i'd been hit by a truck and left to die. Threw up the smuggled sonic burger and tots, had almost every blanket from my apartment on me, a fever of 102, and was shaking like a maraca in a mariachi band. So I had to miss school today, which I also missed monday from being in the doctor's office, and I have to miss friday for the surgery. So I'm pretty much going to fail all my classes, but at least now we know what's wrong with me, right?

In the Mirror

I can't sleep. It's a disease I've recently acquired. Technically I just finished the homework I've been working on for the past 11 hours...gotta love those midterms:) Anyways, last night I couldn't sleep either and wrote down some...feelings. I'm wide awake now so here goes. PS: I realize the rhymes are pretty cheesey. I could make them more eloquent and refined, and maybe one day I will. But for now this is it's original, raw form.

In the mirror I thought I could see

What the world expected me to be.

But the mirror shows a disappointment to the world,

So much on the shoulders of one ordinary girl.

Not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, or strong,

Becoming bruised and broken as the world drags me along.

But now you'll be happy to hear it's true

I'm starting to see what I couldn't see in myself

through you.

I reach to you through the darkness that covers my eyes,

You hold me tight and dispel the dark, the fear, the lies.

I can't believe my eyes, I'm beginning to see

A beautiful girl in the mirror before me.

Week 15

Well, I just finished my first week of my second semester of college. Since semesters are 14 weeks long, with only a week "spring break" in between, one of my teachers fondly refers to this first week of school as "week 15". Aka...a long time to be in college. 

But this first week has been...interesting. I'm taking a LOT of credits. Mondays are the worst--FIVE CLASSES! I took six classes total last semester! Thew worst part is that each one gets progressively farther apart, on opposite sides of campus, and I only have 15 minutes between each one. Hmm...classes continuously from nine to three? Sound a little like...high school to anyone else? But every other day is fun:) Monday, wednesday, and friday I'm taking a modern dance class which is totally kicking my butt but I LOVE it. And on tuesday and thursday I'm taking LATIN DANCE!  Which is totally my favorite class this semester! We're only doing two dances this semester, the Cha Cha and the Rumba, which is a lot nicer than in social dance where you do four dances and don't really have time to work on technique. And BOY do I need to work on technique!! I'm not so good at moving my hips, so that's something I'm really focusing on right now. I'm hoping (and praying) that eventually I'll be good enough to be on the collegiate dance team or (if I feel like aiming ridiculously high) dance alliance. I've decided that dancing is all about being uncomfortable. In modern dance I have to wear a leotard, which I have fondly dubbed my "torture device", and the other day I got fitted for my latin shoes, which have to be a size and a half too small so that a) they are tight enough that my feet don't slip even a little bit, and b) when they stretch, they are still tight enough. 

So...yeah! That's pretty much a summary of my first week of round two!

Mommy wow! I'm a big kid now!

I realize that I am not a profound or witty blog writer. I don’t blog so that others can see my talent with words or marvel at the wit of my posts. Just thought I would start out with that disclaimer. =]

 Anyways, something happened recently that...well, it made me think. Um…yeah. Here’s what happened:

 

In our ward there are three different sunday school classes to chose from. Last Sunday (the22nd) as my roommates and I were walking down the hallway where all three class rooms are located, we walked past one of the other classes and one of our guy friends, Adam, tried to get us to go into the room across the hall. A small spasm of terror shot down my spine as I quickly skirted to the other side of the hallway. 

"No," I quickly explained, "We always go to Brett's class."

This had nothing to do with the other teacher. In fact I don't even know who teaches the other classes, but like I told Adam-- we always go to Brett's class. He's a great teacher and...well, that's just...where we go. It would make no sense to go to another sunday school class! So. We walk in to our normal classroom and I go to sit down on the right side of the room where we always sit. But no. For some odd reason that I can’t even begin to fathom, our normal spot is suddenly not good enough. As my family (aka my roommates) begins to file into the seats on the left, I voice my concern: why left? We always go right! My distress is dismissed and I am forced to sit in a strange, unusual spot. Not that the new spot made the lesson any different: it was still a great lesson and I still felt the spirit. But why on earth did we have to sit in a different spot? I didn’t understand and it kind of made me grumpy for the rest of the day.

 

But as I was writing in my journal that night and reflecting on why I was in such a bad mood, I started reflecting on things that have happened/ ways I feel I have grown and matured in the last year and this is the list that I came up with:

 

·      I’ve learned that a big white truck is not the same as a white horse and just because a boy drives one doesn’t make him a knight in shining armor

·      I left home. I do my own laundry. I cook for myself. I motivate myself to do my homework. I’ve learned that I am a grown, independent woman and there is lot I can do on my own, without holding my mom’s hand

·      I’ve learned how to keep the spirit of love in my apartment, even when I’ve had my feelings hurt

·      I’ve learned that one jar of peanut butter and a few symphony bars can make up for a lot of weekends without dates, a few bad Friday the 13^ths, and several tryouts where I didn’t get called back.

·      I’ve learned how to make dinner for 5 stretch a long way when 4 or more boys call looking for food on Sunday night

 

I love it at this school more than I can express. Sometimes it’s easy to get blue about certain things, but I am so proud of myself for the ways I’ve grown in the last year. I am at the end of my first semester of college. I haven’t had any real problems with homesickness, or feelings that I couldn’t handle living on my own so far away from home. I'm on my way to becoming someone who can help disabled kids, and make a difference in the lives of families. I set a goal and, as scary as it is, have started walking down the road to achieving it. I'm pretty proud of myself =]

 

That’s really all for now, I guess.

 

Greetings from Iceburg

Sorry I haven't updated it a while :/ Things are going really well here! I'm still loving it, despite the freezing wind and -18 degree weather. Every tuesday there is a devotional given and a few weeks ago it was given by elder D. Todd Christofferson. That was pretty amazing. Let's see, what else...? I realize that I am not as smart as I have always thought I was? Haha no, but college just takes a lot more effort than high school did. I've always heard that, but nothing you do can really prepare you for it. I have been doing really good with staying caught up- even ahead if you can even believe it!!- until this last weekend. I went on a date-like outing last thursday and got food poisoning and for the whole rest of the weekend...didn't do anything. Because I know you're wondering, the date-ish thing was fun, but now I'm pretty behind in my math class. I think after this week, though, I'll be alright. Getting behind is the worst feeling in the world, especially with mid-terms coming up. But I think I'll be safe just as long as I don't go on any more dates- I've been on two here in Rexburg (one this last summer and the other last week) and both times I've gotten food poisoning. So the obvious conclusion would be to stop going on dates, right? Right. Most of you will be surprised, I think, to hear that I am just fine with the fact that I'm not dating (and by that I mean going on dates) but really, I'm fine with it. I'm still trying to figure out how anyone does anything but homework down here! I think i've almost got the knack of it! Once I get caught up I'm pretty sure I'll be fine :) The best part of my day is walking to class because every other boy I pass is GORGEOUS! Half of them are probably married, but its still fun to look :) A boy in my BOM class today asked me if I had a missionary. I laughed and told him that I didn't and then realized how HAPPY I am that i don't!!!  My motto right now is the girls' camp song. You know the one... "There's too many guys to chose a single one..." :) Pretty soon it will probably be the "I need a man" one, but for now I'm just happy happy happy. I still think I have the best roommates in the whole college :) we all get along so well and just love each other and have fun and...i am happy with them. It's such an amazing blessing to know that we get along and never have contention in our apartment- I love it :) I love starting out every class with a prayer too! I think it's amazing :)

ALSO, guess who is an aunt!!??!?!? I know most of you will know this already, but I am SO excited about it! Alexis Marie Maus was born last sunday morning and, for the first time since the night mom and phil left, I am terribly homesick :( I want to see her and hold her SO BAD! Her picture is the background on my phone though, and I think on monday I showed her picture to every person I saw on the way to every class, regardless of whether or not I knew them :) I also made them tell me how beautiful she is, because I think she's the most beautiful baby in the world. I can't wait to see her!

So really that's all that's going on! I miss everyone from home and can't wait to see you when I get the chance to come home!

~Hailee

ooh, i forgot to mention one other VERY exciting thing! There is a VERY good sushi restaurant RIGHT across the street from my apartment! Not as good as bonsai, but still very good. Also I start classes tomorrow! Scary!

Welcome to College

Well...i'm finally here! Christmas eve we opened presents then set to packing. I went to bed at about 3 and we left the next morning at 6. I felt like I was saying goodbye to my house for forever, even though I'll be back in two weeks. (four weeks from then, two weeks from now). I'll spare you all the in between things and be content with saying that I'm here! I've already got a calling- Relief Society B Chorister. I love it! It's the perfect calling for me and I'm very happy about it. I haven't done much in the past two days except church, getting connected (freshman orientation thing), getting unpacked, and bonding with my roommates, who I like very much. This is a very disconnected, unorganized blog, and probably a little choppy, but that's how my brain feels right now. Saying goodbye to mom and phil last night was really hard, but once it was done i actually was alright. I was alone in my appt as my roommates were off on various adventures, but it was surprisingly kind of nice being alone. I took my time getting ready, said  good long prayer, read my scriptures, and got a really restful night sleep. That's really all there is to report, but for the one or two of you who actually read this...that's what's going on in my life! Oh, also I got into a social dance class! Exciting, huh? I'm VERY VERY excited about it :) That's all I really feel like saying at this point in time so...buenos noches. And sorry again that this is such a poorly written post.