I am Thankful for...

(this is by no means all-encompassing or in any particular order)

...The gospel
...My testimony
...The atonment
...My family
...My roommates
...That it's barely snowed in Provo this season
...The smell of rain
...BYU's low tuition cost
...Relief Society
...Rainbows
...Rules/guidelines
...BYU
...My teachers
...Sunshine
...Thunderstorms
...Pedicures
...Catch Phrase
...Chocolate
...Getting into the Washington Seminar
...Temples
...Jon
...Agency
...My job
...My parents teaching me to save money
...My bike
...Monk and Psych
...The military
...The dollar theater
...Ibuprofen
...Smoothies
...Music
...Heroes
...Disney
...Little kids
...Humor
...Faith and hope
...The police beat
...Photographs
...Art
...Education
...Forgiveness
...Being a deep sleeper
...Doctors
...The beach
...Pizookies
...Smoothies
...The kindness of strangers

What are YOU thankful for?

P.S. I'm 20 and a half today! Does anyone else celebrate half birthdays?

P.S.

Oh, I forgot to do an update, so here we go:

1. It's almost Thanksgiving! Even more than the excellent food, I'm so excited to see Carly, Rich, Evan, Audra, and my parents, not to mention to get out of Provo for a little while.

2. The BYU v. Utah football game was yesterday. We lost...but that's ok because we'll have an awesome comeback next year.

3. Today was Pete's homecoming. TyRee and Jamie drove up with me to Layton to see him speak at church. I was hesitant to go at first, but now I'm so glad we did. He gave a great talk and it was cool to see the change in him since he left.

4. I had two front page articles!

5. It still hasn't snowed!

Twilight Inspiration

I saw the movie Twilight on Friday, so I've been thinking a lot about that lately. My favorite character is Alice, and I think her gift is the coolest concept in the whole series. Alice has the gift of being able to see the future. But it's not like in most books I've read or movies I've seen where one of the characters can see the future and the future is pretty much set in stone. The future Alice sees is changing, depending on what those around her have set their minds to. For example, if a friend made up her mind to major in nursing, Alice would see what her future would be if she majored in nursing. If her friend then changed her mind and decided to major in elementary education, Alice would see her what her future would be if she majored in elementary education. The catch here is that the friend has to already have her mind made up for Alice to see her future. The friend can't just ask to know where each choice would lead her and then choose the best future. She can't know before deciding, so her decision is still based on faith and hope.

I think this is way cool because it's more realistic (if seeing the future can be realistic). Our future isn't set in stone, but varies with each and every one of our decisions. Even though we don't always have a choice about what happens to us, we have a choice about how we react to what happens to us, and how we live our lives. In this sense, we are in total control of our futures. Life isn't destiny, it's choices.

Decisions, Decisions

I was just looking over the classes that I need to take and realized just how soon I could graduate. I've been planning on graduating April 2010, so I was trying to decide if I should do Washington Seminar (I was accepted for fall, by the way) in the fall or winter...but then I realized that if we can convince the director to offer the capstone class for my major in the summer, and I dropped my English minor, I could finish classes in August and graduate next December! That's a little freaky. Then I wonder...why am I in such a hurry to get out of here, anyway? I don't even know what I want to do. I've thought about a lot of different options, but I don't know if I'll be ready to make any of those big decisions in just a year. The real world sounds a little scary...maybe I could just stick around and get my master's. I'd really like to get a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. On the other hand...I really like my minor, so do I really want to drop it?

Ugh...decisions, decisions.

Another day, another post

Yesterday I had my Washington Seminar interview. It wasn't too bad, actually, not as stressful as I thought it might be. I anxious to hear back now. I really hope I'm accepted because I think that would be an awesome experience.

I finally made a real meal last night. It's a good thing TyRee was home to enjoy it with me because it's really no fun to just cook for yourself. It was a bit of a release for me. I felt better afterward. It was nice. Then, after FHE, I dyed TyRee's hair and watched Miss Congeniality. Don't worry, I'm still getting my homework done. I'm just definitely ready for a break. Anyway, we used henna dye this time. I guess it's less damaging for your hair. It looked like poo but smelled like herbal tea so I had kind of a weird desire to want to eat it. It was fun playing hairdresser.

Here's a picture of our dinner. Unfortunately, we didn't think to take pictures of Ree with dye all over her head.



Oh yeah, and I got another front page article today. I was pretty stoked about it because this is the first article I wrote where I actually fought to get it on the front page. This was my profile that I wrote about Todd, an Air Force cadet who wants to be a chaplain, so it's a cool story, but not very timely or anything. If I hadn't persuaded them that it was worthy and well-written, then they probably wouldn't have considered it. Yay-small victory for me!

Decisions and Timing

So in case you can't tell, I'm really starting to get into this blogging thing. I have no idea how many people actually read it, but it's a nice way to just keep track of my thoughts and what I've been up to.

It was a bit of a lonely weekend with two of my roommates out of town, but it was a nice time for me to think without a lot of distractions. It's weird how something that seems so perfect one day can cause us to be unsure the next. But that doesn't mean that it was never right in the first place, or that it will never be right in the future. It's comforting to know that there are some things that are eternal and will never change, and those are the things we should form our lives and our decisions around.

I don't know what to think

It's been a long weekend and I'm really not looking forward to returning to school tomorrow. I feel like the only thing really keeping me going is the promise of Thanksgiving break in the near future, followed by the warm feelings of the Christmas season.

I re-dyed my hair on Friday. Now it's a little bit darker, but has highlights. It's supposed to have some red in it too, but you can't really tell. I just got it done at one of the hair schools here and amazingly, it only cost me $10. My roommate, Celine, and I went bowling that night, just on campus. It was nice to just hang out, especially since Celine and I never get to do too much together. Saturday morning it was hard for me to wake up, but when I did I decided to go for a bikeride. I ended up going along the Provo River trail for a little bit, and stopping to think by the side of the river. The only company I had the whole time was a creepy gray cat. I think I might have been in her spot or something, because she was giving me kind of a mean look. I think we somehow communicated with our eyes, though, because after a minute I felt like she understood that she was to leave me alone. Anyway, afterward, Jamie and I went to Sam's Club to enjoy some delicious free samples. Maybe I should do that more often...

After leaving Jamie's house, I realized that I no longer had my iPod shuffle with me. I knew instantly where I could find it-in the leaves by the side of the river. I wasn't as disappointed as I should have been, but I hated that I had left it there. Joey was nice and drove me back out there this morning and I was right-it was exactly where I had thought it would be.

I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving this year especially. I'm going to Carly and Rich's house in Gilbert, and my parents will come over too. I haven't been on that long of a road trip for awhile, so I'm even looking forward to that. Hopefully, it will be a nice change from my "fun"-filled Thanksgiving last year when I got stranded with a near-stranger between Cedar City and St. George. Good times....

Pay it Forward

I've always thought the idea portrayed in the movie Pay It Forward was a really good one. When someone does something nice for us, do we just brush it off, or do we say thank you? It seems like the best way we could ever really repay someone for a kind act would be to pay it forward, think of something equally nice you could do for something else. It's the same way with God. When God blesses us, we'll never really be able to repay him, but the closest we can come to paying our debt is look outside of ourselves and allow ourselves to be instruments in the hands of God to bless the lives of those around us.

I know I'm a total sap, but here's a link to my favorite song/music video of the week. I wasn't able to embed it. It's perfect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxdrgYy_SE8

What?! Three entries three days in a row?

Yep...I guess I've just been doing a lot of thinking lately. I was thinking earlier today about the highest compliment someone could give me. I love asking people what the highest compliment anyone could give them is because I think it shows a lot about the person and what's important to them. Anyway, if someone asks me that question, I usually say genuine. It means a lot to me when someone tells me I'm genuine, especially since I strive so hard to be. I also think it would be a high compliment if someone told me I was really in touch with my feelings. I'm not sure who would actually say that, but let me try to explain what I mean. It's really important to me to know what my feelings are. If I can't figure it out, I have to talk to someone until I understand what I'm feeling and why, and I can articulate it. It seems to me that once you understand your feelings, you have more control over your thoughts and attitude. By being able to understand what I'm feeling, it helps me better relate to the feelings of others.

Also, if I'm sensitive to my own feelings, I can better separate them from the feelings of the Spirit and know how to act appropriately. For example, if I know what I'm feeling is coming from my own thoughts, then I can control them and choose whether or not to act. If I know what I'm feeling is the Spirit, then I can act on it without delay.

Life in General

Life's frustrating when you can't see the end from the beginning, which you never really can. It's hard to know which step to take next when you're not even sure why you're where you are in the first place. The only option I feel I have is to put my trust in the Lord 100% but that doesn't necessarily make me feel any more patient. I trust that I am exactly where I should be right now, but I often wonder where I will be a year from now, or even 6 months from now? Life can change drastically within moments, let alone months or years. It's hard to see how everything that's up in the air right now will possibly fall into its rightful place. At the same time, I can look back on my life to times when I had these same thoughts but everything turned out for the best. It's comforting to know that with enough faith and determination to do what's right, the Lord will direct each one of my steps, leading me somewhere even better than I could have ever imagined.

It's been a looong week, with elections and school, and feeling sick and sleepy...I intend to make the most of my Sunday and rest as much as possible. Probably about the coolest thing I did this week was fire the cannon with TyRee at the football game yesterday. At every home football game, the Army ROTC fires the cannon to start it off, and after every time we score. Then, they all do a number of push-ups that corresponds with our number of points. Here's a link to the article: http://newnewsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/69647 I wrote an article about it for the paper a few weeks ago, and that's when I found out that girls (yes, only girls) can go sign up to shoot off the cannon. So, TyRee and I have tried to sign up the past couple of home games, but they're always full. But...we finally got our chance and it was awesome.



Firing George Q



The Cannon Crew



Yay for free T-shirts!

Friday night was Staci Rollins' wedding reception. I consider her one of my best friends-I've known her since before I can even remember. I wish I'd remembered to take my camera, but I forgot! It was the first time I've seen her in about a year, and my first time ever meeting her husband. It was in Layton so it was a little bit of a drive, but Jon came with me so it wasn't too bad :). Five or six of our friends from high school that I haven't seen since graduation came up from Southern California to celebrate and it was so fun to see them! The reception was really nice; I'm so happy for her!

Last night we had a girl's night. Kadi, Jamie, TyRee and I dressed up and went to The Olive Garden for dinner and then came back to the apartment to watch Step Up with my roommates Kaylee and Celine. Afterward, Jamie helped us learn one of the dances they do in the movie. Well, it's kind of like a line dance, except street style. Sorry, I don't have pictures of that either :(.

Ward Halloween Party and Dining Out

Yay for pictures! It's been too long since I posted any, so here they are:



My roommates TyRee, Celine, and I were the elements. Water wasn't able to make it...



Ree Ree and I with our home teacher, Neal.He's awesome...



Ree and I...



Ree and I with our FHE brother, Saul. His tie says "chicks dig me"...that's for sure...



Jon and I were both supposed to look at the camera for this picture, but we kept turning around at different times...



This is a bit reminiscent of old high school dance pictures when mom snaps the camera while you're awkwardly trying to figure out the corsage and boutonnière...



Doesn't he look good in his uniform?