Weekend and Back to School!

This weekend was great. A couple of things about it... I love Friday afternoons after working a full day. It is the best feeling to be free! I came home and bought my parking pass. I got the best spot. I was SO excited. I only have one car next to me and then empty space on the other side which will make parking this year SO much easier. $80 is expensive but it is worth it to have a spot and to keep my car underground. Patrick and Jordan came over on Friday night. It is so happy to have good friends. I appreciate them so much. Saturday morning I helped Heather unpack and then we went and worked out together. Having Heather back has been just the best thing. She makes me so happy. In the afternoon I read a book, did some cleaning and decorating and then Eva came home! We were all back together again! Hooray!!! We went to the grocery store and then knocked on people's doors to come over for a game night. It was kinda strange to knock and have different people open the doors. It'll be fun to have new friends but I kinda miss some of the old people too. Sunday we went to church. I love our bishopric. So much. So so much. It was the best feeling to have Bishop know my name and smile and welcome me back. So welcoming. Knowing that he loves and cares for us means so much to me. Not that a new Bishop wouldn't. Just that already having them be the same meant a lot to me. I worked on a cross-stitching project in the afternoon and then I made cookies. At home, Mom has a tradition where she always has cookies waiting for us after the first day of school. I missed that so I decided I needed to make my own. I took some to friends and then went to sleep.

I rolled all night with that inevitable first day of school feeling. I woke up this morning and went to work then to classes. Today I had PDBio 305 and Nutrition 200. I'll describe them in more detail later. I'm a little intimidated but very excited. This afternoon I spent finishing my project and listening to music. FHE was a bunch of games. I think we'll have a fun ward. Now I need to get stuff ready for the morning and get to sleep! I'm going to work really hard on having good habits this semester so now it's early to bed so I can rise early!

Sunset

Yesterday evening I drove to Salt Lake to pick Heather up from the airport. It was late in the evening and the sun was just setting. It was simply beautiful. I can't describe to you how amazing the red and organge and yellow colors were behind the dark outline of the mountain. I love sunset. It is probably my favorite time of the day (especially during the late summer and early fall). The temperature starts to cool down. The busyness of the day begins to slow. And it is such a perfect time to sit and talk or to ponder. That was last night. I was driving by myself and I just pondered on life. In growing up, I've been thinking, life isn't easy. And yet even in the hard moments, the sad things, the trials, it can be beautiful. So I got to thinking about how grateful I am for the things Heavenly Father has given me to help me through my trials. I am so blessed by the chance to be alive right now. To have been born to my parents. To be a student at BYU. To have friends. To have small and yet so important things like a car and music. Most of all to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to have a testimony that I am a daughter of God, that I have a Savior who died for ME. While I was driving and looking at the sunset I really thought a lot about just being me. I got the chance this summer to spend a lot of time with myself. And it wasn't always easy. But I think I'm learning (notice the present tense) to love myself. For who I am, for who I'm not, for who I can become. And it makes me happy. Anyways, I love sunset.


(One more quick thought - I LOVE my roommates. I was SO happy to have Lyss and Heather home last night. Heather and I laughed and talked in the car forever and Lyss and I already ended up staying up late talking. It is so good to be back together. Now we just need Eva on Saturday and it will be time for new fall adventures!)

Random Assortment of Thoughts

A random assortment of my thoughts and doings from the day:

I am officially unpacked and moved in. Today I finished little things left to do - I unpacked my desk and knick-knacks, hung my pictures, hemmed and hung the new shower curtain. The only thing I haven't done yet is wash the quilts from our couches. I'll do that tomorrow before I go pick up Heather Jean from the airport. Yep, she and Alyssa come home TOMORROW! I'm so excited.

I strongly dislike working for 8 hour shifts. I had forgotten how hard it is to work that long. I remember now. I love my job. Don't get me wrong. I'm starting my third year with the Department of Statistics and I love working there. I love my boss, I love Jordan, I love my other coworkers, I love the professors. It has been a perfect fit for me. But. Not for 8 hours at a time. I will be happy when Monday comes and I go back to working my normal 20 hour week.

I feel so strange to be a junior (technically a senior by credits... though it is going to take me 2 years to finish still so I've just been calling myself a junior). When I was younger I always imagined starting college and what that would be like and I always imagined myself getting married and starting a family, etc. but to be honest, I never really thought very hard about what would happen in between there. Oh I knew I would go to London and I thought of random things like that but really I never imagined this time of life in my head. So now that I'm here, it's a rather odd feeling. Not a bad thing, just a little weird. And I guess the next thought is trying to figure out what I am doing now that I am here. Obviously school for fall and winter. Then I have a spring and summer to decide what to do with. Then I have one more fall and winter til I graduate. And from there I have more choices. Do I want to serve a mission? Or do I want to go straight to grad school? And of course in the midst of all of this is that my ultimate goal is to be a wife and mother. And that might change all of it. Maybe I never imagined this time of life because I probably couldn't have if I tried since it is so full of choices and decisions and change. Ah.

I miss London. That sounds a bit pathetic. I was only there for two months... it shouldn't be that big of a deal right? Wrong. Dead wrong. It had a huge impact on me and I think will always be a little bit a part of me. People keep asking me about my trip. I cannot give them a good answer. Uh. It was amazing. I loved it. Probably one of the best experiences I've ever had. Not only did I get to see and learn history and take my pictures but I learned about myself. Blah, blah, blah. Doesn't even come close to doing it justice. The reality is no one will ever really know or understand what that trip meant to me. Because even the people who went with me didn't have my experience. It was mine. And I value it so much. But right now, I'm missing it. So I'm going to do some of the things that I loved in London. BYU Museum of Art, Springville Art Museum, Thanksgiving Point Gardens, lots of walking, lots of thinking, lots of being me. Anyone want to come? You're invited!

The other thing is that I don't want fall to come and have myself fall back into my old habits, my old routines, my old me. We're living in the same place, I'm working in the same place, I'm taking classes like always. And I think it would be really easy to just go back to who I was. But I learned so much this summer. And I just can't lose that. So I am going to make a conscious effort to focus on taking the things I learned in London and at home and applying them to the BYU version of me. I'm betting easier said than done. But I'm going to work on it. I have different goals, priorities, plans and I'm not going to let anyone else change those for me.

One more thought from my day was gratitude. I was feeling kinda frustrated about how much my textbooks had cost me, how long my day at work was, and how empty the apartment was to go home to. But then I realized that I get to go to school. And not only that I get to go to school here at BYU. I am so blessed by everything about this university. Then, yes, 8 hours is an awfully long time, but the reality is I have a job! And it is a good job. I get paid well, I'm happy there, It is on campus. And even though my evening was a little bit lonely in my apartment at least I have a place to live. And it is a wonderful apartment. It looks at Y Mountain, is close to campus, is clean. And best of all, tomorrow it won't be empty anymore, because my roommates will be HOME! So I realized that I had absolutely nothing to whine about. Nothing.

My life is so full of blessings. I'm happy. And that is the perfect way to end this very long, very wordy, mostly pointless post. I'm happy. And I'm grateful for that.

Summer at Home and Back in Provo

Obviously I did not really write over the summer. This is for several reasons. First, to be perfectly honest I was just lazy. Second, much of why I blog is for people like my mom at home to be a part of my life and I was with them so I didn't need to blog for them to know what was going on. Third, I think I just needed a break. Writing is usually very therapeutic for me but sometimes it becomes a stressor instead. So I just took a break. And last, I just didn't feel the need to share anything that was going on. Not that it wasn't happy or exciting or adventurous or silly or sad or hard or whatever else I usually blog about it. It was just I felt content with being quiet for a little while. At any rate, I'm back in Provo and before I move on with my new adventures and stories I'd like to share a few pictures and memories from my summer at home.



I went on the best double date this summer!!! I say double date because I had TWO dates. And they were pretty darn attractive if you ask me! My brother and my cousin to me out to see Night at the Museum 2. I loved it. It was a really fun movie and a really fun night!

We went on a camping trip up towards Montana. It was my family plus my cousins which was so much fun! We stayed in a campground just inside of the Idaho border and for one day we drove up into Montana and went to a sapphire mine! It was so much fun. Everybody loved it and in the end we found about 12 sapphires that are getting heated and cut so we can make them into jewelry. I was so dirty and sweaty and gross but I loved it. Camping is one of my favorites things! I love love it.

A huge part of the summer is obviously getting ready for and going to the fair. I love the fair so much. It has been a huge part of me for a long time and it was so happy to spend time there again. Luke showed a steer this year. He did very well. Nicole and Skyler also showed steers. Both of them did really well too. And I think they all had a lot of fun.

Right after the fair I got to go to Girl's Camp. This year I was a leader though which was a very different experience. I felt a little bit out of place all week. I don't fit with the girls anymore. And yet I don't fit with the leaders either. Hm. But I learned so much. And had such a good experiencing getting to serve with the stake leaders. They are such good examples to me of the kind of woman I am striving to become. I made a little basket that is on my desk now to help me remember camp. I'm SO glad I got to go.


A lot of my summer was just family. I can't explain how much I love them. It was different being home. They always say you can never go back. And they are right. I didn't quite belong there. I really do have a second home in Provo now and so Caldwell isn't really complete. But spending time with my family was the highlight of this summer. These pictures were from a trip to Utah. They make me laugh.


I got to do a lot of crafting and reading and things like that this summer. I don't make time for them during the school year but I did while I was at home. My mom helped me make an apron (it's reversible, that's why there are two pictures) and a pillow. It was so much fun to spend time with her.

Right before I came back to school I got to go to a bridal shower for my friend Jill (in green). It was just the best to be back with my friends again. It was like nothing had changed except that we had new adventures and dreams and plans to talk about. I love those girls so much.

And now, well, I'm back to Provo. I drove down on Saturday and with Patrick's help unloaded my very packed car (thanks Dad!). I started work on Monday and I bought my textbooks. Today I'm getting my haircut. Then I'll be cleaning and unpacking since the girl who lived in my room for summer is moved out. The rest of the week is a little bit lonely looking until my roomies come home. But that's okay. I'll find something to do. And honestly I'm happy to be back in Provo. For now it really is home.