Fun collage

I just realized that I never posted this. It is from when Karina and I hiked the Y

The FINALS experience

This semester I had 6 classes, which I really enjoyed overall. It wasn't a terribly difficult semester, except for those realllly late nights that I did to myself by procrastinating - but I also blame my professors for conspiring to make the due dates for big projects on the same day. They seem to do that a lot.

Thanksgiving was so great to go home and see my family and play with my niece and nephews :) I loved being warm in California and with my family! But Thanksgiving is also such a tease. Students get to go home and relax, but when they come back they have so much that is due and a lot of pressure as finals are edging dangerously close. I didn't realize just how much there was for me to do until I was back in Provo for a few days. And then it hit.

I spent a lot of time in the library and started to put a lit-tle bit more focus into my classes. My finals were mostly scheduled this semester, which was a new experience for me. This was the layout that I had for finals week:

Monday: Linguistics @ 11 am [then study study study]
Tuesday: Genealogy @ 11 am [then study work study]
Wednesday: Humanities @ 10 am [then work study study study]
Thursday: New Testament @ 7am [study] History @ 11 am

I had one final which I was able to take any time I wanted in the Testing Center, and I ended up taking it Thursday night just to get it over with and give myself Friday to do NOTHING :)

It was a pretty intense week and I ended up spending some late nights at the library. The BYU Library stays open until 2 am for finals and let me tell you, I took advantage of that more than once.

I felt pretty good about my tests once they were over, which was nice. I was so burnt out by Thursday; I was so ready for the semester to be over and to go home soon! Kelsey flew home Thursday morning, but neither Karina nor I were leaving until Saturday the 19th so we decided to celebrate the end of finals together in the best way. We built a huge fort that took over our entire living room :D We slept in it both Thursday and Friday night and enjoyed chatting and playing MASH. It was so fun to be silly and relax. It was very much needed.

Here is our handiwork:

It was so much fun and we will be sure to make another one, or two, or more next year :)

- - Now that it has been 2 weeks since the end of finals, the grades have been submitted and I am very happy with the results of my semester. It is a relief to have those classes behind me and that I can be happy with the outcome :) But soon the process starts all over again...

Dress Up

This Fall Semester I feel like I dressed up a lot and I loved it :) It was fun to get together costumes and to be silly with friends

First up: Halloween

My roommate Karina thought for a long time of what our costumes should be. We decided that we wanted to do something together, so we tried to think of some ideas of corresponding costumes. We ultimately decided to be a Cowgirl and an Indian. :)

I was so excited to be a cowgirl! I kept telling Scott how he is going to become a cowboy as he serves his mission in Texas, so I felt like it was appropriate for me to be a cowgirl :) Just call me "Howdy Holly" haha

We hunted through DI and took a trip to Walmart and ended up with some sweet deals, like my boots in the kids section of Walmart [I was so surprised they fit!] Karina actually just bought fabric and a little decorative ribbon to sew her costume herself - and I think it turned out amazing!

My other roommate Kelsey got really creative and put together a costume to be a superhero with her super power being world peace. She is from Oregon and is quite the tree hugger ;) You can't see it very well in the pictures, but she made a purple peace sign that had the world behind it - very crafty!

We went to some fun parties dressed up and had a good time with friends. Pictured below is our good friend Jud that accompanied us as the purple Tellatubby Tinky-Winky, haha!!


The next week was round 2: White Trash Party

I wasn't planning on attending this party, but Jud invited my apartment and we decided to tag along at the last minute. It was pretty difficult to throw together an outfit with what we had in our apartment, mostly because we weren't exactly sure what it meant to be white trash. We tried though, and we had a lot of fun!


It was also fun to get dressed up with my roommates just for fun sometimes. A few time we would all get together and take turns rummaging through each others' closets to pick out outfits to wear the next day for church or a date or whatever the occasion was. My roommates have way more knowledge of fashion than I do so its very fun and educational for me.

Kelsey is really good with make-up and hair, and Karina has really cute clothes, so they like to play with me as their life-size barbie doll and I have no objection :) I guess some little girls never do grow out of their desire to play dress up.

Life has been crazy

Finals week. That says it all...

I have been crazy busy lately studying, working, and taking my finals. As of right now I have 2 done. One more tomorrow at 10, 2 scheduled for Thursday at 7 am and 11 am, then another at anytime on Friday. Then I'll be home free!!

I have had some fun adventures lately, but the time to share those will come later. I simply cannot take the time now, which is sad. But what I can do is share this story. I have heard about her before and have been told bits and pieces, but tonight I read the full story about Stephanie Nielson - and I cried my eyes out.

I am so glad that I finally read this story and I really recommend you read it too. It makes me appreciate my life and all that I am blessed with. I will not take my life for granted and I will look forward to the future with happiness and gratitude.

Read the full story HERE.