Hunting Rabbits and Hot Springs

As my friend Melissa told me today, "girl you've got this Rock and Roll lifestyle going on…" That's how I feel, but you know in a Mormon way. It's pretty sweet! Anyway, Friday turned out to be a really random but fun night. After hitting up a basketball game, the boys got this great idea to go shooting. Now I've been shooting before, but never in the dark. I'm down for an adventure so whatever. Anthony seriously drove us out to the BFE, and this isn't shooting clay pigeons, this is shooting rabbits. Now let me explain before you think we are just killing God's creatures because we are twisted, sick, individuals. These rabbits will eat the hay all winter and it ruins the hay stacks, so of course you to have some sort of population control. Anyway, Anthony is driving and B has got his gun out the window. We only saw two, but they killed them both. Both of them I would say are excellent shots! After that exciting ordeal we headed back to Rexburg, then to IF for a Denny's run. I seriously cannot remember the last time that happened. There are special people at Denny's at 2 in the morning! Saturday we decided to go to Lava Hot Springs. I've only ever been to the pool, not the actual hot springs. It was a delight, a LOT of people were there, and at one point I didn't feel very good, but still I would totally go again. Next time, I hope it's snowing! I didn't take any pictures there, well because we were in water, duh! Sunday night was our normal game night, I seriously love game nights, they bring happiness to my soul! This next weekend I am so excited because Jenn and my sister Mariah are coming up to visit. I love them both so much, I can't wait! Here are some pictures of my adventures:

B shooting rabbits out of the window, it's sort of hard to see the gun though!

Kill shot!

Ashley's Chinese eyes...haha!

A-Town cruisin' in the truck, he's got MAD driving skills!

Wow B, try to look a little more lively...

Taking my shot of gross hot chocolate!

Ashley's turn!

Weekend

Weekend. I love that I live for those 2 ½ days (because well let's face it, Friday night is kickoff for the weekend). For a single person the weekend is critical to socializing. I mean I hang out almost every night with someone, or socialize, but the weekend for some reason is "special"; probably, because I don't have to drag my behind out of bed the next day, or because everyone else can party right along with me. I just love sleeping in on Saturday mornings, and more importantly going to Church on Sunday's. Even though I dread Sunday night because I know it has to start all over again. In the summer, every other weekend was a three-day weekend. It was glorious! So what are my plans for the weekend, not anything too spectacular, but I will tell you that I'll try to be social, AND try to catch up on some sleep. Oh weekend, how I love you!

On another note, who loves Idol this year with Steven Tyler and J.Lo? I mean I miss Simon, but that's it. I just want to be J.Lo so bad, she is the most exquisite women, and Steven Tyler is funny. I'm really excited to see how this season plays out. That was my random tangent.

Here's to a great weekend, full of fun and sleeping, and maybe hopefully start another book because at this rate, I'm so not going to meet my goal.

Winter Blues

Last night I was talking to my friend Sarah about life and we've decided that no matter how happy you are with life, you just get the winter blues in January and February (especially here in Rexburg, where it NEVER stops snowing). I would compare it to wanting to stay at home all day in your lounge gear and watch TV (or read), no motivation to get ready for the day and furthermore not caring that you spent all day in the same clothes you slept in. So after hanging out with my crew last night I came home and was deep in thought about life and was thinking about this conversation. If I know that I feel that way sometimes, and so does Sarah, there has to be others. There has to be a way to crack the winter blues. Here are some of my ideas:

• Exercise. OK so granted I loathe running, and I try to do it as little as possible (haha), but really there's swimming, and I LOVE volleyball. Just going out there and being active and competitive boosts your morale and gives you a free kick (endorphins). But this is definitely one of my resolutions this year, to look forward to working out… ah someday.
  
• Treat yourself. I got a massage about two weeks ago, yeah pretty much heaven. I plan on getting a manicure here in the next couple of days. Seriously, it's OK to pamper yourself, and it does make you feel better about yourself.
  
• Shop. I know, takes money, but you are out and about. You actually don't even have to spend anything, I LOVE furniture shopping. It gives me some great ideas for the future!
  
• Socialize. This one is probably the hardest because it not only takes you moving out of your comfort zone, but it's also reliant on someone else to complete the task. Seriously though, nothing compares to talking to someone face to face. If you don't have a place to go to meet new people, let me introduce to the Singles Ward of the LDS church, believe me, you'll socialize.
  
• Music. There is nothing like turning on your favorite song and singing at the top of your lungs, whether in the car or shower. It just has to be done.
  
• Service. Nothing beats this one; you'll stop feeling sorry for yourself and help someone who really needs it. Plus, blessings for all!
  

Those are just a few that I've come up with. What are your ideas for breaking the Winter Blues?

Check it Yo!

I had an incredible weekend. Lots of fun, and not enough sleep, so that definitely means I had fun right? I didn’t take pictures of our Chinese dinner because well hello I was busy cooking but it turned out so good. We had mandarin chicken, egg rolls, pork fried rice, and homemade fortune cookies. Hyrum made all of our fortunes for the cookies and my piece of advices was thus: You will become rich at the price of becoming ugly. Awesome right? So after that we headed to the bowling alley for some Skittles bowling. So the rules are as follows, you bowl, however many pins you have left up you eat that many skittles. You cannot chew, swallow, or spit them out until you get a strike or a spare. Hyrum had 22 skittles at one time in his mouth; I found it pretty darn funny. The next round we played couples against couples. It was a good competitive match but Ashley, Anthony, Heather, and Matt beat us. So we had to buy them ice cream. We went to Twizzleberry and played some Kinect Dance Central for fun! I’ve included Anthony dancing because seriously I love a person who isn’t afraid to look dumb and have a good time. We went back to the boys’ house and played the games some more then off to bed…at 4:00 a.m. Here are some amazing pictures from the evening:

Hyrum & Emma

Anthony & Ashley

Heather & Matt

Me & Brycen

On Sunday we had a game night per usual, and we played this game called European Twister, fun and a good way to get closer to one another! Good picture taking opportunities. I’ve also included video and pictures below. Good times were had by all, and seriously I love to laugh and I did a lot of it too! Later we played truth or truth, my favorite game of all! You learn so much about people once they let their guard down a little. A great weekend with a lot of laughter but more importantly good friends!

Awkward situations tend to lead to fun activities...HA!

One human pretzel

Matt, Heather, Ashley, & Gwen

Building My Testimony One YouTube Video at a Time!

I'm not a baby by any means, but yes I cry. I cry especially at church related things, it just touches my heart, and of course the Spirit has a big thing to do with it. I love the Mormon Messages that the church creates, and now they have the Mormon Messages for the youth. They are amazing, faith building testimonies of experiences that touch your soul. I usually end up watching them at work, and there I am sitting at my desk with tears in my eyes as I watch and listen to the touching message usually of hope, forgiveness, and love. This one is my favorite, I like to watch it when I am having one of those pity me days:

I just watched this one this morning. The boy in this video is one of my BFF's wife's cousin (got that?). After watching it I realized that even though I went through something somewhat similar in my life, I don't think I had as much faith as this young man. It's truly amazing how awesome the gospel is, and how it changes people, and changes me, every day.

What an amazing way the church as used YouTube to strengthen my testimony, pretty much amazing.

Swing Away

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

Dr. Seuss

Snow Removal

I've lived in Rexburg for most of my adult life, and really I'm used to the winters. It's cold, miserable, and well you just deal with it because the summers are so unbelievably amazing. I've lived in places where I don't have to worry about snow removal, its just taken care of. Now I live in a house, and well we are in charge of our own removal. WORST. IDEA. EVER. Ugh, seriously we have boys who live underneath us and they do a great job at making sure the sidewalk is clear and our stairs are clear bless their hearts, but they all drive 4-wheel drive trucks, and my Diamante isn't. So the snow falls and you know whatever we clear it, but this week/weekend we got dumped on. The worst part, it's a mixture between rain and snow, so the snow is really heavy and wet. It doesn't help that the snow plow moved all of the snow into our driveway. Anyway, Friday night I stayed home to study for my Praxis test (ugh do NOT want to discuss that), and needed a break. Well my roommate Monica is from California so she drives and SUV but it doesn't have 4-wheel drive (so pretty much a pointless vehicle in the winter), and she got stuck in our driveway. So I put my boots on and coat and head out to push/dig her out of the snow. It takes a while, a good long while and so we decide to shovel the driveway, because it's just getting ridiculous! Let's just say, that we shoveled that driveway until we couldn't shovel anymore. I was beginning to loathe the snow and also appreciate all the men out there who go out and shovel, bless their hearts. So we shoveled our little hearts out and taught Monica how to build a snowman. The worst part about this whole thing, the next day it just snowed some more, or our efforts were pretty much pointless. Awesome. The best thing about the whole ordeal, knowing men who will do the work for you (or assist you) or at least help you get OUT of your driveway. Maybe chivalry isn't completely dead? Oh Rexburg, when we will see your green grass, I'm predicting June 15th this year!

Molli got us this adorable hats for Christmas, her mom made them. They are super fun!

Monica trying to dig her Explorer out!

This is my car, and its cute little spot where it fits in, my door opens but barely! This is not a fun walk unless you have boots on!

Here I am contributing to the cause, but mostly just posing!

Molli trying to make some sort of pathway to our cars, as you can see the snow is pretty dang high!



Fantastically Awful!

OK so this is a bridesmaid dress that my roommate had to wear to a wedding. There were 6 of them, the other 3 girls had coral dresses with a green sash. Isn't just fantastically awful? They even had shoes dyed to match the dresses, um yeah that she's going to wear that ever again. What made my roommate even more mad is that it was immodest, and the bride was getting married at the temple! Dumb! I look like a Christmas present all wrapped up, ready to be opened. I had to put it on and take a picture, because well I loved it! It so reminded me of 27 Dresses!

I'm also decided that I need to take a LOT more pictures of my life. In college I swear that's all I did, but now I look at my camera and it's pathetic how I took probably two pictures all summer long, wow. So that's my goal, more pictures! Plus, who doesn't love pictures, I mean that was pretty much why Facebook was invented right? Pictures also tell a story that words cannot, so therefore, I better get on it.

Be Who You Are and Love It!

The singles life is always so crazy. One minute you are a loser and the next you have a gaggle of friends (I know gaggle is a fun word). Wait; let's start back at square one with my roommates, Molli and Monica. I really didn't know them all that well when I moved in, I knew that they were awesome but I really didn't KNOW them. Having them as roommates was the best decision I ever made, it was hard to leave Sarah but we both needed change, and I'm glad I patiently waited until I could have a chance to have these lovely ladies as roommates. Anyway, lately I've acquired new friends (and became good friends with my roommates) and it's crazy how much I learn in such a short time from all of them. I'm pretty sure the big guy upstairs knows exactly who I need in my life to help with trials and challenges, and what a blessing that is. So my a-ha moment happened last night when we were talking about our inadequacies, and I just thought, that's it, that's what it's all about. Working through those weaknesses as best as I can, and doing it while trying to do what's right and being happy that's what it's all about. Having confidence and faith to know that I'm trying my best and doing what the Lord wants is how I'm going to make it. Then I used my favorite quote, and suggested it be a mantra Be Who You Are and Love it… Stop trying to measure yourself to others, or thinking because not everything has turned out exactly as you would have it be, doesn't mean it's the end of everything. Heavenly Father knows all and I'm willing to bet he knows what he is doing! Oh life, thank you for continually teaching me life lessons. 

Life Changes!

My New Year's was excellent. I usually despise such a holiday because well I don't drink, and I don't have a significant other, so I just sit around with others who are like me we play some games then go home. Uneventful. This year it was pretty much the same thing, but I laughed a lot more than usual and I didn't go to sleep until 5:30 a.m. So I would say I "partied" hard. I made Emma (Hyrum's girlfriend) come with me since she was in town and all by herself. Who wants to spend New Year's that way? We had a good time, and seriously I enjoyed sleeping in the next day (even if I did feel hung over for most of the afternoon).

I also finished my first book of 2011. Only 51 to go! At this rate though, it's going to be a tough challenge to read one book per week!

I've also been thinking about teaching a lot. It was 4 years ago (OH WOW that long ago?) that I made my way to Vegas to start student teaching. I've never been so nervous or scared in my entire life. Granted there were some weeks I didn't think I would make it, but by the end I knew that teaching was what I was born to do. I grew so attached to my students in my short 3 months there. So my goal for 2011, to get back into the classroom! It's going to be a hard and tough journey, but it's what I was born to do, and I know that it's time for me to jump head first into it. Will I be nervous and scared? Oh yeah, but sometimes the most rewarding and best things take effort and perseverance! So first step in my journey is taking my Praxis test for my minor next Saturday. It's my last hurdle before I can certify and start applying…. Eek!