Happy Late Thanksgiving!

Okay, I know that Thanksgiving was two days ago, but I just really wanted to write a post about people and things I love and am grateful for.

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ: For all the tender mercies they grant me, loving me unconditionally, blessing me with all the wonderful things I have in my life, sending me the spirit, answering prayers, giving me opportunities to grow and learn, sending me trials, sending me wonderful people, always being there so I don't feel alone.

My Parents: For supporting me, letting me live my dreams, laughing at me when I do dumb things, letting me live with them, listening to my worries and concerns even if they are trivial or dumb, loving me, working hard, teaching me good things and helping me live the gospel.

My siblings: For teasing me non-stop, helping me to laugh at myself, playing games and talking, being great examples, acting like crazies.

My best friend: For listening to everything I say, understanding me, making me laugh like no one else can, reminding me to be silly sometimes, going to China with me so I don't have to go alone, being a great example, teaching me, going to Barnes and Noble with me, being my best friend.

My friends: For skipping classes with me, texting me in class, doing crazy things with me, watching movies and quoting kid history, listening to my music and pretending to like it, listening to me and understanding me, sticking with me through the years, always being there, being great examples of faith and love, laughing at me.

Work: Ideally, I would just be rich and not need to work, but I am so grateful to be able to work for the things I want like school and China. I'm grateful that I have a job where I have friends and good managers who keep things uplifting and positive and make me feel like a winner. :)

School: I'm not thankful for homework, but I'm so glad I can go to school and learn. I love being able to learn new things and become a better person. I am grateful that I can pay for my education and that my teachers are so nice and understanding.

America: Freedom to practice whatever religion I want, to say what I want, and to be what I want. I love America and the freedoms I enjoy. I am proud to be an American!

Money: I know, this is so shallow, but I am so grateful for money because it teaches me a lot. Paying for school and China has been hard, but I'm so glad that I had to work for those things. You work hard for things that are important to you.

China: I am so glad China exists so I can go spend five months teaching English with my best friend. :)

I am so blessed and overwhelmed with everything in my life. Life isn't perfect, but it sure is wonderful!

Happy Holidays!

Weber State, Weber State, Great, Great, Great!

First week of school as a transfer student at Weber: Success!

On the first day of school, I got really confused trying to find my health education class. Turns out it's in the gym building of all places and I didn't realize that. I kept thinking, "That's the wrong building!"

The bus ride is 1 hour and fifteen minutes.

I only go Monday Wednesday Friday. Perfect!

I come home from school completely ravenous.

College is the PERFECT place to people watch. You wouldn't believe the things people do. Also the bus.

I like big libraries and Weber State's library fits those qualifications. I've already checked out some books. :)

There were people praying in the middle of the bookstore.

I got a free water bottle! Three cheers for free stuff!

My history teacher has something against ANY other college except Weber. If you wear other colleges clothing, he will "slap it off you."

I only have to take one or two finals at end of semester. The rest are papers and that is CAKE!

This semester is going to be fun!

Weber State, Weber State, Great! Great! GREAT!

A Few Changes

Where to start? Well, I passed all my classes but lost my scholarship. That means that I can't afford school right now so I am moving home to work full time. Either I will go to  a Universtiy near my house or I will go to China. It's all a toss up right now. I am a little sad at how things have turned out, but mostly, I feel so relieved to have a semester off. It seems to me that Heavenly Father has been preparing me for this for a while now. Even though this isn't really what I had in mind for myself, it's what He had in mind that counts. I've been placing a lot of trust in Him lately and sometimes, I get nervous because I might not like what He plans for me. In the long run, I know that He knows best and I will see those blessings eventually. To explain a little, I was working at McDonald's at school. They weren't going to give me the break off to go home so I was going to be spending most of my break away from home. It wasn't worth it to me so I thought a lot about quitting. I mulled over it a lot and finally decided to quit. I prayed about it and it felt like the right thing to do. I was a little confused because I needed to pay rent for my apartment for the first of January and I wouldn't be able to make the money if I quit. That's when I knew I was going to be relying very heavily on Heavenly Father and my faith. I quit my job and came home. I took over a cleaning job for my brother in hopes of making enough to pay for it. Today is January 3rd and my last check from McDonald's still hasn't arrived and I still haven't been paid for the cleaning job. I'm scared that the money won't come till after a $50 late fee gets tacked onto my already expensive rent. I just keep reminding myself to have faith and remember that I've done all I can, I just need to leave it up to him. I probably won't be able to sell my contract, but if anyone is interested, let me know! ;)

Life is so unpredictable. That must be why I love it so much. You get into the swing of things and it sends a curve ball. Some curve balls really stink but others are awesome. Either way, they bring blessings and growth. I've grown a lot in just four months, enough to say I'm done moving out, but I needed to do it for a while so I could grow more. I always said I would move out and I was so anxious to be on my own. After doing that for a while, I missed my family way too much and I didn't like only worrying about myself. Call me crazy! :) It took me almost the whole semester to adjust to life and I was completely not myself. I would come home for a weekend or break and all those feelings would just melt away. I never wanted to go back to my apartment very much, but I never dreaded it either. I had fun down at school, so so much fun! I just like living where people know me and love me no matter what. I'm always accepted at home and I always have friends. Maybe I'm taking the easy way out, but it feels right. I'm much better at making new friends when I'm home than when I'm away. I've already made some new friends this winter break than I did in a whole semester away. I'm so grateful to my room mates who dealt with me and my dysfunctional self and to Heavenly Father who gave me such a wonderful experience. I'm ready to grow in some other ways now, progress in life more. Life is nothing with out progression. I just barely found a video I would like to share with you that I really liked. :)
"Look Not Behind Thee"

So moving home is one change. The other is that I've finally decided on a blog name I like and the url is different now. The title comes from a talk by President Thomas S. Monson in General Conference 2008. My new URL is www.thewaytojoy.blogspot.com. That about sums up all the changes. For now...

PASSED!

Words cannot describe the relief I feel after passing my Biology final today! No more Biology for me! Don't get me wrong though. I do like Biology, just this particular teacher was so hard and made it less fun than it could be. I need to go to Rate My Professors and warn others. I will say that I came out with a lot more knowledge on the subject, but I don't think I'll remember anything on the Kingdoms and the Phylums we learned about. I just finished my Math Final and I feel really good about that one. I just have one left tomorrow at noon and then I've got to find a ride home from someone. I probably will have to wait until Friday to go home. :( Not having a car in college is really difficult. It's doable but it's hard. If you are me (which you aren't), you have awesome room mates who drive you or lend you their cars.

Excuse my rambling, I must now go to the beautiful Library (I love libraries!) to study for my final final. :)  It shouldn't be so bad. If I can pass Biology, I can pass ANYTHING!

Beware The Studying Monster

He will tempt you to get on Facebook, post on your blog, go to Wal-Mart or do anything besides studying. He is very manipulative and good at what he does. He is actually sitting next to me rubbing his hands together and cackling because I am posting on my blog instead of studying. However, he will be very disappointed in me when I begin studying in earnest. Dear Studying Monster, you have won far too many times, it's time for me to beat you!

Finals: Read all about it!

FYI, finals = stress. Why? Here, I've made a list!

1. Some finals are tons of questions, so you must know tons of stuff.
2. Some finals are only a few questions, but you don't know which ones so you have to know tons of stuff.
3. Your professor can change the time of the final and the place if he or she so chooses.
4. Math is hard to study for.
5. If you don't pass your final, you have to take whole class again.
6. Big tests the week before the final.
7. The need to study, but absolutely no desire.
8. 7:00 AM finals. (Will I sleep through it on accident?)

So that's why it's stressful. Why it isn't?

1. I only have 3!
2. After your last final, you get to go home for Christmas!!!!!! (I may be just a little excited for that...)
3. Finals week, absolutely nothing happens so you have time to study, take breaks, eat, go to Wal-Mart, and exercise to destress.
4. It's only two days and only 6 hours of testing.
5. I know more than I think I do. (I hope.)

Finals are in one and two days. Wish me luck!

Harry Potter 7 Madness

Madness may be an understatement for what happened at the 2 screen movie theater here. There were to be 200 tickets sold for the Harry Potter 7 Midnight Showing last night. My room mate, Sam, me and Sean our neighbor went to the movie theater at 9:00 PM to wait in the line that had not even wrapped the small building all the way around yet. At 9:30, they opened the box office and it was a mad rush. There wasn't any order whatsoever. Instead of being near the middle of the line like we were, we ended up closer to the back. Eventually, it didn't matter where you were in line before. The line had become a mass of people all crowded around the small one person box office. I felt like I was at a concert except there wasn't any music and the "f word" was thrown around way too much. I accidentally touched far too many backsides and mine was certainly touched more than normal. People kept yelling about people pushing but it didn't ever stop.

Finally, we forced our way to the front and got a hold of a yellow wristband that acted as our ticket. I don't think I will ever throw it away after all I went through just to get it. :) Then, trying to get out of the crowd was nearly impossible because everyone wanted your place in the line as you left. I think I may have elbowed someone a little hard. Whoops... When we got out of the crowd, we went back to our apartment to get some hot chocolate from the CocoMotion and brownies. After warming up, we went and waited in yet another line to get into the theater. I heard stories of the people up front getting stuck behind the door and loosing their place in line. Luckily, being in the back meant no shoving and we still got good seats. When the movie ended, I wanted the 2nd part to start playing because I was so ready for it! Unfortunately, we have to wait until July for it to come out. HURRY UP JULY!

PS College kids can be violent. I think a few girls were ready to punch people.

Registration

It's time to register for classes for next semester. First, you have to decide exactly what to take. That can be hard since there are lots of hard classes and not that many fun ones. Then, after deciding what classes to take, you plan out when you want to take all of them, cross your fingers and hope that when it's your turn to register, that there is still space in that class. Then you try to register for classes. It's not so bad at my school because it's not a huge university, if you are at a university, you fight to get into the system with all the other several hundred students. That's why smaller schools are awesome. :) No fighting to get into the system. Tomorrow, I register. Crossing my fingers!

The Prize at the Bottom of the Box

Remember when you were little and your mom bought those cereal boxes that have prizes in them? I sure remember the fights that ensued as to who would get the prize. i.e. "You got it last time!" "I haven't had one in forever!" "I really wanted that prize!" I especially loved the prizes hidden inside the cereal bag. You would be poring your cereal and all the sudden, there was a prize in your bowl. Who ever thought of doing that was a GENIUS.  I wish I was rich so I could only buy cereals with prizes in them. Sigh. Unfortunately, being in college means being poor. It also means you don't go through a box of cereal as fast as you did when you were living at home. Every so often, I think I will splurge for a good prize. It would be worth it, after all. Why does everyone have to grow up and become boring. You are NEVER too old to get a prize in a cereal box. Never.

Sidewalk Police

Today I was walking to class on campus and I realized that everyone was walking on the sidewalk like you drive on the road. Everyone stuck to the right side of the sidewalk whether they were walking towards campus or away from it. I thought to myself, what if I just walked on the left side of the sidewalk. What would happen? As if this kid read my mind, he walks past me on the left side and walks straight through a big group of people. If looks could kill, this kid would have just died 6 times. I immediately looked around for the sidewalk police to see if he would get a ticket for disrupting the flow of traffic. Those tickets can be pricey you know? Naturally, I would never disrupt the flow of traffic. After classes, as I walked home, I stepped onto the left side of the sidewalk. The girl walking on the sidewalk to the right of me kindly moved over to the left so that I could be on the right. Just a shout out to her for keeping me from getting a "disrupting the flow of traffic" ticket.