A smile

Once upon a time (actually many times) my mom told me that I always look angry. What can I say? I guess the edges of my lips curve down naturally. But because it was my mom that told me this, I didn't pay much attention. However, last week one of my friends told me the same thing. So this week I decided to try something different. I decided to keep a smile on my face. Ok, so I don't walk around with a huge, cheesy smile plastered on my face and I still look angry while I'm studying, but I've made a conscious effort to look happy as I walk from building to building on campus. Let me tell you guys, it's made all the difference. Today was long and boring, but I felt great. I also met several new people, and I had some wonderfully awkward experiences today that kept me smiling. The point? If your mom tells you you look angry or unapproachable, maybe you should take that into consideration and change.

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Just Your Average Week

So the title is far from true. I had a couple of experiences this week that were pretty intense. First off, a boy told me that I was going to be married first in the ward. He's new so he doesn't know very many people, so we all forgive him for saying such ridiculous things. No, I'm aiming to be married after I start dental school.

On tuesday Karli and I went to zumba. We came prepared to have fun, but the instructor was a little more intense than what I was used to. For some reason, about half way through the workout, I couldn't breath. So I went outside to get some fresh air and I realized something was wrong. I was coughing uncontrollably and I still couldn't breathe very well. So I went inside and told Karli and she came back outside with me. After about a minute of trying to breathe in the cold air, I realized that this wasn't a reaction from the class, it was an allergic reaction. My throat began to close up and my eyes began to itch. So Karli and I went back to her car and she rushed over to the creamery. Oh but the creamery doesn't have benedryl so we had to go to buy low. At this point my head felt like it was going to explode from the lack of oxygen, I was still coughing, I still couldn't breathe very well, and my eyes were swollen and itchy. So karli took me home and sat me down in the shower so I could breathe in steam. The benedryl didn't help much at first, and hives began to appear all over my stomach and legs. So I took two more benedryls and took a shower. By the time I got out I was dead tired. So I went to bed and the next morning my eyes were still a little puffy. So my mom brought me some antihistamines. I took one and all during chemistry I was loopy.

Sorry this is so long but to end, I still don't know what caused the reaction but my doctor thinks it has something to do with exercise.

Wednesday night I bickered with that boy from last semester that was one of the main reasons I was so down. Apparently we're friends again. We'll see how long that lasts.

Today I had a cleaning check and I called in to 101.5 the eagle every hour to try and win concert tickets. So because I didn't win the tickets here is my music video for tonight. Classic

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Friday Night

So it's been a very long time since I've posted a friday music video. But before I do, I do have to say that today was the best day I've had in a very long time. It started off with Return to Me and then class. But then I went to an exhibit with Karli, I planned out where I'm going to live next year with Annie, I hiked the Y with Sharissa, I went to classic skating with a bunch of friends from my ward, I fell a lot at classic skating and had the time of my life, and then I watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days with the same group of people (this was the requested movie from one of the guys). So overall, really busy day and I'm going to be very sore and exhausted tomorrow, but it was worth it. So this is the music video for the night. It turns out that Luke Bryan is one of my favorite artists and I had no idea. When I went to buy this song (yes I know it swears) I found out he also sings one of my other favorite songs, Country Girl, oh and also Rain is a Good Thing and many more. So enjoy.

But since I haven't posted in a really long time he's another song. Do you remember them? Ya well this show is back on and I'm super excited.

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Look Who's Going on a Mission!

Once upon a time me and my friends grew up, well sort of grew up. It's crazy weird though to be at the age when all of your friends are leaving to serve missions. I still remember being in primary singing "I hope they call me on a mission" and thinking that was an eternity away. But it's here and although it's super sad to be left in the dust as my friends go off and serve the Lord it's also a very exciting time. And I'm so excited for my friend Houston who will be serving in the Alpine German speaking mission.

It's been a long road with Houston. When we were younger we would play together in nursery and primary.

He came to my birthday parties and we would always have fun.

But things changed when he transferred to my elementary school. You see, I was a very important spanish immersion student who didn't waste her time associating with the lesser english students. So we stopped being friends and we stopped talking at church.

Then in ninth grade I made one of the best decisions of my life and chose to take AP human geography. At the beginning of the year I hated the class and thought the kids were all very strange. But by the end of the year I had become good friends with almost every single one of my classmates. And that is how my friend group started. Anyway, Houston was in that class and although I couldn't stand him at the beginning of the year, I got past that and things started to get back to normal between us.

The summer between ninth and tenth grade is what really made us friends though. During that time I liked his best friend and he liked my best friend, so we often formed a five-some (we weren't sixteen yet so we couldn't be paired off) that was convenient for all of us except for that fifth person (usually James or Sean).

Since then our friendship has only gotten better. Yes we've had our rocky moments (more than any normal friendship) but we always move on. He has always been there to support me and I know I've already written about this, but some of the most memorable experiences I've had were with Houston and Sean and our lovely friend Skype while I was an exchange student in Spain for the year. But there have also been other moments in time, like right before I left for Spain and we were all at Sean's house for his birthday party and I needed space so I went outside and Houston came out and just sat with me. Or when I first started to get into hiking and Houston was the only one who agreed to hike Mt. Baldy with me.

There are several more memorable moments, but it's the normal weekend nights that I'm going to miss the most. Who am I going to watch play call of duty now?

Anyway the point is, Houston I'm going to miss you, but you are going to be an amazing missionary. Thanks for being such a great friend.

The first hiking club activity

After the state sterling scholar program

Graduation (I'm the one you can't see)

Sean's farewell (the last time for a long time we were all together)

Helping out at my brother's eagle project

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A New Attitude

So I've been a little down the past couple of months for a bunch of different reasons, but that's about to change. I'm trying to focus less on what's happening around me and more on myself. I think last semester I wasted so much of my time trying to be someone I'm not. It's time to face the facts, I will never be that perfect BYU girl that everyone seems to love. And I've realized that that's great, I don't want to be her.

Over christmas break I got a letter from my friend Sean. He's probably the only one that knows everything about me. For the past couple of months my letters to him have been super depressing. I didn't mean them to be, in fact I tried to make them happy, but he saw through that. So in his letter he gave me some really good advice. He told me, "Si quieres estar feliz, necesitas ser feliz." Meaning, if you want to be happy, you need to become a happy person. Ok so it doesn't really make sense in english because we don't have two verbs for to be, but it really got me thinking about what I needed to change about myself.

So here's my new years resolutions (I know it's way late)(Oh and this year they aren't quite entertaining as mine from last year):

1. Read at least one chapter from the Book of Mormon everyday

2. Participate more in the activities going on around me (meaning: wyview activities, ward prayer, ward service projects, etc.)

3. Write in my journal every night (I already do this so it should be easy)

4. Write a letter to one of my friends every Sunday

5. Make at least one new good friend that lives by me

6. Make an effort to talk to at least one stranger every week day (before you get creeped out, to me, saying hi counts as talking to someone)

7. Do more of what I love: hiking, biking, running, dancing, reading for fun, etc.

So ya most of them are things everyone should do all the time, but they are things that I didn't do last semester.

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D&C 6:36

I really don't have much to talk about but I'm waiting at home for my little brother and I'm bored. So here's what's been happening. First off, my thursday and friday schedules are the best. I only had one class on each day. So I woke up late, went on a casual run, got ready for the day (I know, shocker) and went to class. I then went home and played monopoly on my ipad. It was fantastic!

Saturday I saw Contagion with my roommates and boy was it intense! Megan came home and immediately washed her hands.

Sunday I met all the lovely new people in my ward. I don't know what to think exactly. To be blunt, the future looks grim. There's way more RM's than what I was thinking and a couple of them are balding. At least it's better than having a 29 year old in the ward who asks 18 year olds on dates.

So that was my weekend. It was pretty eventful and a slight improvement over last semester. I'm expecting the worst but hoping for the best here.

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Back to Business

The break was wonderful. For the first week I did nothing but sleep, watch TV and cross-stitch. I got my energy back and I forgot about some of the problems I had in the dorms. The second week me and my family went down to St. George where I ran in the hills, took my dog for walks, went shopping, went shooting, rode dirt bikes, went golfing (I beat my mom and my brother), and went to see We Bought a Zoo. It was a blast! But I came home early on saturday with my grandparents so that I could spend new years eve with my friends. Overall, it was a great week.

But now I'm back at school. Yesterday was the first day back and I can already tell I'm going to hate wednesdays and mondays. I was there from 10 to 5 and I only had about 1 hour of a break in that time. I forgot I have chemistry with a certain kid that I tried to forget this break...wonderful. My economics professor tried his best to encourage everyone to drop the class. Too bad I need it because of the freshman mentoring system. My biology professor is pregnant and is due during finals week. That could be a problem. Oh well, we'll see how this semester goes after I've actually started to learn.

As for the social stuff, I met some pretty cool kids yesterday. I even had a full twenty minute conversation with some kid while waiting in line to see a professor. Now that's what I call progress. The ward on the other hand might be a struggle. I wasn't too fond of it last semester so I was hoping the new kids that moved in would become my new friends. But that doesn't look like it's going to happen. Almost all of the new boys are RM's and we only have like two new girls. So it looks like I'm going to have to come up with great excuses for having to go to my home ward each week.

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