The Temple!!!

I was able to have one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Let me preface the story just a little. For years I have wanted to go through the temple and take out my endowments. For a girl there are a few reasons that you can do that. First reason would be if you were going to get married. It is essential that you take out your endowment first. The lord is a god of order after all. The second option would be to go on a mission after you turn 21. The last option is to get older and not have done the first two options. I had always been told that the magic age was 24. So here I was waiting to turn 24. I don't know if waiting is the right term to use. I wasn't just sitting around letting the years go by, knowing that someday I would be 24. That would defeat the whole purpose of needing to be 24. I went to the temple prep class 4 times if my memory serves me right. This was done over the past 5 years. I have just always felt like I needed to be ready when ever the time was right. I wanted to be prepared.

I'm not going to lie, I was really hoping that option 1 was going to be the one for me. I have dated a number of people over the years and only had one that really should have worked out. But here I am still single. That means on to option 2. I've never really felt compelled to go on a mission while I was young. I always focused on education. I love learning and I couldn't even fathom taking a year and a half off of school. People have asked if I was going, and I just say that I am getting as much education as possible. So there went option 2.

Option 3 was beginning to look like my destiny. Right before I turned 22 I had a talk with myself. I decided that I was going to go through the temple for my 24th birthday. I was going to spend the next two years preparing to become who I need to be to get those blessings. When I moved to Salt Lake City in April the lord blessed me with two amazing visiting teachers. One of them asked if I was endowed. I told her that I wasn't 24 yet, so I hadn't had that opportunity. She said that if I really felt like I needed to go through the temple I should talk to the bishop. I wasn't really sure at that point if it was really time for me to go yet. I had had 24 in my head so long that I couldn't really think of it differently.

The summer presented me with interesting experiences. I finally read the Holy Temple. This is an amazing book and I had a real desire to go to the temple. In August Michael ended up getting engaged. He informed me that I would be getting my endowments out so that I could go to his wedding in December. I told him that I wasn't going to do it for that reason. They later had to move the wedding to March so I had more time to decide what I wanted to do. In September I was thinking about the temple a lot. I figured that it wouldn't hurt to ask the bishop if I could go to the temple. We had a chat and he asked when I would be turning 24. I told him not for another year. He said that I needed to at least wait until after my birthday. So on October 25th I had my interview. Then set up my appointment with the stake president. I got my recommend about two weeks before I went through. It finally started to be real for me at that point.

I scheduled my time with the temple for November 14th. I made all the calls and invited my family to come and share this experience with me. So yesterday I got in the car with my mom and headed to the temple. I have never felt the love of my savior that much in my life. I knew that I as a daughter of my heavenly father. I was special and a individual. My heavenly father was filled with joy that I had made this decision and made it to his holy house. It was such a neat experience to have so much of my family there and know that I was loved. They took time out of their lives to come for me.

I can't wait for the day that I will be sealed in the temple with the man I love. It will be one of the most sacred and precious moments of my life. I have taken so many things upon myself at this point. I know that I want to keep myself worthy and clean to receive that final ordinance one day. I pray that I can live me life the way I need to in order to be a light in the darkness for others. I hope everyday of my life I can do what I need to do for a worthy young priesthood holder to see me and know that I am his.

Pretty much to sum up the temple is amazing and I am going to go back as much as I can!

Grad school entrance tests.....

After taking the GRE I was a little disappointed with my score, but live must go on. The day I received my official GRE score I signed up to take the Miller Analogy Test. I couldn't find a practice test online that was free, so I ordered some flash cards. The website said they would be mailed within one business day. I was expecting to get the package fairly quickly. I was very wrong. I received my package yesterday. I was really happy to finally get them, but not excited to take my test today. So I gave up my Monday night volleyball to be responsible and hopefully get a better grade on my test. Then I got off work an hour later than I planned on. I drove home, sat down on the couch and studied for four hours. Then I went to the U and took my test. As I finished I was scared to push the submit button. I really didn't want to have to take it again. I clicked the button and.........

I PASSED!!!!!!

Yes that is the word. So I am one step closer to applying to graduate school. So that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

Registration

I remembered today at work that I needed to register for winter semester classes. I was a little scared because I thought I would be writing emails to teachers and talking to my advisor trying to figure out a way to make it all work.

Registering has always been a big hassle for me. I don't know if there has ever been a semester that I just sat down and got all the classes I needed. I spent a few hours a couple of weeks ago piecing my schedule together. I have four classes that I need to take. Along with those come three science labs. I don't know if any of you have ever tried to coordinate labs, but it is hard work. These particular labs are all connected to a certain lecture class. In order to make everything fit the lecture class and the lab have to fit in a particular spot. Coming down to the last classes you have to take is difficult. You don't have a lot of options and you have to take the classes or you will be behind a whole year. My favorite is when you have planned out your schedule a couple weeks in advance. Then you go to register and the class times have changed. Then you get to redo the entire things for one class.

So long story short I didn't have any of these problems this year. Actually it was helpful, one of the lab times for my chemistry class changed. But instead of it being horrible it was wonderful. Michael is getting married on a Tuesday in March. I was trying to plan my schedule so I could go to his wedding without too much hassle. It ended up that I was going to have to put my chemistry lab on Tuesday. Then I had to move my Anatomy and Physiology lab on Wednesday morning so that I could possible go to the Monday section of my chemistry lab when Michael got married. It was all a lot of work for just one day. I must really love Michael.

So the lab time was changed so I could take it Wednesday afternoon. This the allowed me to change my Anatomy and Physiology lab back to Monday afternoon. I now won't have to start class until 9:45 a.m. In Rexburg this is a good thing. It is already freezing cold there in the winter. It doesn't help if you have to go out when it is dark. The sun makes it at least a little warmer.

The moral of the story is I registered, it was a breeze and worked out even better than originally planned!

As a side note, I went to look at my account to see how much tuition was and I discovered a Pell grant for this semester. I'm not sure how this work, but I wasn't about to question it. I just said a pray thanking my heavenly father for this wonderful gift and rejoiced. I know that people get excited when they find $5 in their pants pocket after doing laundry, but I wasn't expecting to find an extra $488 hanging out in my account. I love life and its little miracles.

Happenings of 22

So I just wanted to remember all the things I did or that happened to me when I was 22 that were significant.

1. Got my first 4.0 in college.

2. Got my first just because flowers, which happened to be lilies. My favorite!

3. Had a boy tell me they loved me.

4. My twin got engaged.

5. I did an internship.

6. I took the GRE.

7. I caught a 14 lb salmon.

8. I took a vacation I didn't think I had time for.

9. I went to Moab for the first and second time.

10. I only cut my hair once.

11. I finally read the Holy Temple.

12. I was on a championship volleyball team at BYU-Idaho.

13. I was in the choir for Savior of the World in Rexburg.

14. I got my second niece.

15. I worked a graveyard shift for a week.

16. I had three jobs at one time.

17. I decided to take out my endowment. (Happening on November 14th.)

18. I went to the same college as Michael.

19. I bought a dresser and a bookshelf.

20. I finished all my requirements for graduation, but decided I wanted to go to graduate school, so I didn't actually graduate.

21. Figured out what a bed bug is and that they are the devil of bugs.

22. Discovered who I am and what I stand for.

I just want to thank everyone that had a part in my 22nd year. I might not have always liked what I was going through, but I wouldn't change my experience for the world. I have learned so many life lessons from so many people. I've discovered that my Heavenly father loves me and will do anything for me as long as I am doing his will. My savior atoned for my sins and every heartache and sorrow I have ever experienced. I can be forgiven for everything, and am learning how to forgive myself. My parents love me and have sacrificed so much to give me the life I have. They would do anything for me. My siblings are some of my favorite people and I miss them as they are all away from me. Sometimes we have to lose things to understand how much we needed them. Music is the gateway to the soul. If we are prepared we shall not fear. Putting our faith and trust in God is hard, but always worth it. Trust is something that is gained and shouldn't be taken for granted. Once lost it is a battle to regain. Life is about the journey, we need to enjoy it along the way. As always, Life is what happens when we've made other plans. If you don't make a plan you never get anywhere in life. Love is to be cherished and never forsaken.

I hope to take what I have gained from 22 and make 23 that much better. Hooray for another year!

First week being 23

This has been an interesting week to say the least. It started out fine on Monday with nothing out of the ordinary. I went to work, had an amazing FHE lesson on Virtues and finished up the day with some volleyball. I went to bed thinking I would get up early and go to the temple for some birthday baptisms.

Tuesday

To my dismay as my alarm went off at seven, my body said, "Yeah right!" Now I'm not talking about it not wanting to get up for the day, I mean it didn't want to move. So I went back to sleep. Promptly at eight I received a phone call from my parents with a chorus of Happy Birthday! I again went back to sleep. This was followed by a slew of Happy Birthday text messages. At eleven thirty my aunt called to say that I would be working on Friday. I finally decided that I should at least get up and maybe lay on the couch. I had a Medical terminology test that I needed to study for that day. So I tried my hardest to study, but finally decided that nothing I did would stick in my head. I put the movie Sabrina in and proceeded to watch. I though that I had seen it before, but was pleasantly surprised. At around six thirty I got up, determined that I would have fun on my birthday, and went to dinner with my roommates. We went to Olive Garden and it was delicious. Our waiter was probably the best I've ever had. He always came to refill out drinks just as they were getting low, or give us a new salad. He also gave us two mints as we were checking out because he heard a conversation that one of my roommates was having about how much she liked them.

We then all met up at home and went out to Red Box to see if they had anything good. Christopher had so graciously given me a free rental code for my birthday. We rented Marley and Me. It wasn't quite what I expected, but it was fun to spend a night with all of my roommates. It just doesn't seem to happen as often as it should. My visiting teachers brought me flowers and a couple of friends came over to give me birthday wishes. All in all my birthday was a success even though I was sick the whole day.

Wednesday

I was feeling better on Wednesday as I got up for work. But I was having new problems. I was coughing a lot more and my throat was starting to hurt. I tried to drink a glass of milk before I ran out the door, but that made my problems worse. I felt like my throat was coated almost to the point of being filled. As I got to work, I was starting to lose my voice. Through out the day I think I lost it at least four times. My boss took me out to Cafe Rio for a birthday lunch. It was really good. Then I ran home after work, packed my things and headed to Idaho. As I got into Pocatello I stopped by Fred Meyer to talk to an old roommate. We hadn't seen each other in about a year and a half. As we were talking another old roommate went through a checkout line near us. I hadn't seen her since her wedding a year and a half ago. We all caught up and had a great time. Then I headed over to Maria's house. I don't think I had seen her in about that same time period. We stayed up talking until 1:30.

Thursday

I woke up said good by to Maria and headed up to campus. I had a meeting with a woman from the Physical Therapy department. She answered a lot of my questions and made me feel a lot more confident in my chances of getting into the program. It was interesting trying to ask her things because my voice really didn't want to work. Having walked out side in the cold it was rebelling. Swallowing was the worst part. You know you are sick when you have to think about every time you swallow.

I walked back to my car and headed up to Rexburg. I had a lot of errands to run this week. I stopped by Broulim's on my way into town and picked up some soup. I needed to eat something and I figured chicken noodle was my best option. Nichole wasn't home, so I sat in my car for the next two hours pouring over my Medical Terminology book. I hadn't study for my test yet and now was my last chance. After I had looked over the first seven chapters, I decided that was as good as it was going to get. I walked up to campus ready to take my test. First I stopped in and asked an old teacher if he would write me a reference letter. He said yes, and was excited that I was applying to PT school. I went up to the testing center and took my test. It took me all of 15 minutes to complete. That was only because I went back and checked my answers. I ended up missing one. Not too bad for studying for two hours.

After this I went to sign a housing contract. It was fun because at this point I was having trouble talking again. The manager asked me how to spell Wampler. Rather than try to spell it out for her and not have her understand me I handed her my ID card. Needless to say I got my contract for winter semester. I had to go back two seconds later because I forgot to tell her what apartment I wanted to live in. I went to Nichole's apartment and made my soup. My throat felt so much better after that. We just hung out for a couple hours, then Nichole had to go to class.

Lucky for me that was just about the time that Jared got out of class. I had just purchased a photo from him and needed him to sign it. He took me to a nature park I never knew existed. It was beautiful with all the fall colors. It was fun to catch up on the past six months. It was sad to come to an end of my visit, but I needed to get back to Idaho, so at seven thirty I headed home.

Friday

I woke up at six forty-five and got to work by seven thirty. Today was dental assisting. I had called Bruce at seven and asked if he wanted me to come in. The day before I had been talking to Nichole about being sick. She had gone to the doctor and had bronchitis. So I didn't want to go to work and get people sick. He said it should be fine as long as I made extra sure to clean up really well. I had to wear a mask all day long. Normally I take my mask off as soon as I can, but I had to keep in on from seven thirty until four. I definitely didn't enjoy it. I think I washed my hands over a hundred times. This was increase because the new symptom of the day was sneezing. I don't know if you have ever been in the middle of an hour long procedure and your nose keeps running and you sneeze ever few minutes, but it isn't exciting. I made it through the day and ran home because I had to be ready to go to Park city by five thirty.

I took a four minute shower. This included washing my hair by the way. Then packed because as you can see I didn't have any other time to do it. I was so excited to go up there until we started driving up the canyon. I realized that the sinus pressure that I had been having down in the valley was going to get a lot worse as we kept going up the mountain. So by the time we got to the cabin we were staying at I couldn't hear out of my left ear.

We had a great devotional about TLC (Totally loyal Live like the man Charity eternally) It was a really good lesson. There were some testimonies shared by four girls in my ward. They were are all really good and the spirit was so strong. I couldn't hear really great, but I caught most of it. Then I went to bed at ten because I was exhausted and didn't really feel great. I was hoping the problem would be fixed in the morning, but it didn't really normal out until we were getting ready to leave the next day.

Saturday

We got up in the morning and had breakfast. The view from the cabin was beautiful. We had another devotional from the second counselor. Then we packed up and headed back. As we went down the mountain my ears started hurting again. Once we were back in SLC my ears were back to normal. I hung out with my roommates for the first part of the day and then went to my roommates symphony concert that night. It was really good for a community orchestra. Then off to bed we went.

Sunday

That brings us to today. I got up today and still had my cough. I am pretty much fed up with being sick. It was really sad because I love singing at church. My visiting teachers came over at twelve, I went to church at one. After church I have my first temple recommend interview with my bishop. I am so excited!!! After that meeting I called the executive secretary and got an answering machine. Not wanting to leave it up to chance I dropped by the stake center to see if I could set up an interview with the stake president. One of his counselor was there and gave me the stake president's number. I set up my interview for November 3rd. For all of you who don't know I am taking my endowment out on November 14th.

My home teachers came over at six thirty and then I had a small birthday party at seven. We then migrated to dessert social at eight. Now I am home finally relaxing. Over all the week has been pretty busy. I think that I'm almost better as far as sickness goes. At least that is what I'm hoping.

Hopefully hearing my life story wasn't too boring. I know that I think my life is more exciting than it really is. But I have to be excited about something, right? This is my life of being 23. I'm hoping that this year will be full of excitement.

Sleep glorious sleep!!!!

So as always life is an interesting adventure. My graveyard job only lasted a total of eight days. Just enough time to mess with my sleeping schedule. I spent the past week trying to get back into sleep at night routine. But before that could happen I didn't sleep for four days. Now it would be normal if I didn't sleep for four days and was completely exhausted, but part of the problem was that I wasn't tired at all. I would just lay there wide awake for hours. It was very frustrating. Then I would go about my day thinking I would be tired because I hadn't slept, but no I was wide awake. Thankfully last night was filled with nothing but undisturbed sleep. It was a beautiful thing.

Today I had a wonderful surprise. As I was eating breakfast Christopher text me and asked if I was home. I said that I was and got excited. If he was asking me this question that meant that he was in SLC and I would be able to see him. Turns out that he and Laura were celebrating their anniversary, which is on Monday and so they had dropped off Jane at the grandparents and spent a night alone.

I was told a couple of weeks ago that I needed a belt replaced in my car. I naturally had called Christopher about it to ask his opinion. He said it was hard to give advice about it if he couldn't see the actually problem. So he has been worried about it for the past couple of weeks. What a nice brother to worry about my safety like that.

Turns out that it did need to be replaced. So he and I headed to Checker's to get a new belt. It only ended up costing me ten dollars and change. A lot less then it would have been to have someone else change it for me. Then we went to the Phillip's house to get a tool. I was being the lovely assistant handing him wrenches and such, but then I thought that I could be helpful. We were having a little bit of trouble getting the damaged belt off. I have small hands so I figured that I could get into the small compartments a little easier. We finally just ended up cutting the belt because it was taking too long to take it off. The instillation of the new belt went a little quicker than I thought it would. We formed a plan and then executed it beautifully.

The whole thing was quite fulfilling. Not only did I not pay a ton of money to get my belt replaced, but I helped in the whole process. So if anyone has a '95 Mitsubishi Galant S and they need to replace their alternator belt I now know how to do it. :)

It was great to spend time with Christopher. I don't get to do it a lot and we did a lot of bonding. Thank you Christopher!!!!

I have also discovered that I am addicted to school. I just started an online class a couple weeks ago and I get this rush as I am studying for the class. It is Medical Terminology so there is a lot of memorization involved. There is no better feeling than getting a good grade on a quiz or a test. I know that we shouldn't seek for people's approval, but there is nothing I live more than to see and "A" on my transcript. My class is going well so far and I am excited to go back full time in January; even though my schedule is going to be as crazy as ever.

8:00 a.m. bed time

So I had the opportunity the other day to make a decision about my life right now. This past year has been really interesting as I've tried to find a job. At times I have thought that I've made it and can relax...job found...life will chill out for a little while and I can breath. That is usually how it has been; not this time around though. For those of you who don't know, I've been kind of working two jobs the past little while. I've been working for my Uncle Bruce in his dental office when ever they need some help of Carolee needs a break from the craziness. I've also been working as a PRN physical therapy aide for the office that I did my internship with.

Things had been going pretty well. I had worked everyday for two weeks. It felt good to finally get paid for same work I'd been doing for the two months prior (for free mind you). Then I had a chance to go to Oregon and Montana with my boyfriend. His dad had offered to take us Salmon fishing and his niece was being blessed. I had a really hard time deciding what to do. I've spent most of my life doing all the things that were necessary to get the A or to pay the bills. What I'm trying to say is pretty much I always put school or work before playing or having grand adventures. Now I know that this sounds like a grand principle to live by, but sometimes I look back at the last four years or even eight if you really want to look at my life and wondered what memories I missed out on. Now I'm not saying that I wish I had been more irresponsible while I was going to school. But life is meant to be enjoyed not just endured.

So I was presented with a dilemma. Should stay in Utah and hope that I got called into work or should I go to Oregon and make memories that I would enjoy forever. After I kept being told by people that I needed to live a little I decided that I would take a risk and go on a trip. As you can read in my last post I had the time of my life and made a lot of memories that I'd never had before. While I was in Oregon I got called in to work. It ended up that I could have worked four of the days that I was gone. I sat there one night wondering if I had made the right decision. I decided not to worry about it right then because there was nothing I could do about while I was there and I just needed to have a little fun.

Upon returning to Utah, I wasn't getting calls from anyone. I was working for my uncle once a week, but that isn't enough to pay my rent. I received an email from a girl in my ward (who is the employment specialist) that gave all the information for a data entry job. They were looking for 400 people to work a new project for a few weeks. I sat there pondering it for a while. I wasn't sure what I should do. I already had two jobs, but they weren't always consistent. I left the message in my inbox and went on with my day. Later I came back to it and pondered some more. I decided that I really needed to make some good money so I could pay back people who had been helping me out. I hate owing people money and it has started to wear on me. They were offering the job on three shifts. I figured that I already had two jobs during the day and if I worked a later shift I could still do them if I got called. I didn't want to work the swing shift because I would never see my boyfriend. So graveyard it was. Every person I talked to told me I was crazy and that I was going to over exert myself, but this was something I had to do.

I said a little pray and discussed my plan. I felt like it was the right thing to do right now and that I would be strengthened during my trial. Michael worked graveyards for two years basically and I wanted just a little bit to understand what he had gone through. I've had it pretty easy as far as jobs go and now was my time to have a new experience.

So I started working graveyards last Thursday. The whole experience has been a little odd. I'll give you a little background on the project. I am working through a temp agency called Spherion. They are staffing a project at a company called ACS. The project is processing invoices for "Cash for Clunkers." I'm sure you've all heard of it. The government didn't expect this to be such a hit and wasn't prepared for the rush. They are really behind on processing the claims, so now I have a job. The interesting part is that they just kind of through the project together. They pulled some people from other shifts at ACS and asked them to be supervisors. They were trained during the day and then we came in Thursday night and got trained. The whole thing is a mess really. Out of the couple hundred people on my shift there were only about twenty who could log into the system to process claims. That was last week. They slowly are getting more people connected, but it is taking forever. The first couple of nights I worked we got sent home really early. The time I spent at work was worthless and I pretty much got paid for doing nothing. On Monday night a group of us took turns doing claims on a team members login. I finally worked a full shift, but didn't really do that much work. Tonight I finally had my login worked out, but they hadn't assigned any work to my page. We sat around until 12:30 a.m. at which time they told us that they were sending us home. I'm not really sure why we got sent home, but lets just say none of us were too happy about.

So pretty much I work at night, sleep during the day have a few hours to play and get things done and then repeat. My body is still trying to adjust to sleeping during the day. I don't really think that it likes it, but that is what has to be done. I start an online class on Thursday and still need to study for the GRE which I need to take next month. As well as the other volunteer hours I need to complete for my PT application. So life is busy and crazy as ever, but that is better than the do nothing have no direction for my life state that I was in a couple months ago. Life is an adventure and I am living it.

Adventures in the Northwest!

For those of you who don't know, I just had the coolest vacation ever. I had a lot of first experiences in this adventure filled week.

1) I picked black berries for the first time and even ate one. These things were huge. I wish I had a picture but I wasn't thinking that far ahead.

2) I went salmon fishing on the Columbia river! I caught a fourteen pound chinook salmon. I had a massive one on the line before this one. It was so wild. I had never been salmon fishing or even attempted to catch fish of this size before. David's dad got a hit on his pole and handed it to me and said reel. I had no clue what I was doing. I was reeling as fast as I could but this fish was ripping line so fast, there was no way I could keep up with it. It jumped clear out of the water on one side of the boat and then seconds later was jumping again on the opposite side. Then the beast would be held no longer and left me standing there kicking myself for losing it. But it was an amazing experience I wouldn't give up. Luckily I was able to pull in this bad boy a little bit later.

David and his sister Nola also pulled out some beautiful fish.

Nola and her 18 pound chinook salmon

David's eight pound silver salmon. (He also caught a five pound steelhead, but we had to release it because it was a wild fish.)

There has been a record number of salmon running this year, but they just aren't biting. We were out on the river for a good eight hours and we got a couple more hits, but there were fish jumping everywhere. They just didn't want to come home with us.

3) I finally made it to Washington. I haven't really traveled a ton in my life. The traveling I have done has consisted of the western United States. (Someday I will make it a little further east) But I always had one spot that was left untraveled. The state of Washington was the only western state I'd never been to. I had even been to Canada, but Washington had been elusive. So on our drive over to Montana we headed through Washington. I learned that they have some of the craziest on ramps and interchanges. I was glad to get out the crazy traffic and into the beautiful wilderness.

4) I have now been through northern Idaho. I had always heard how beautiful and majestic Cour'de Lane was but never been there myself.

5) I went fishing in the river. Now don't get me wrong, I'd been fishing on rivers and lakes before, we always had to stay on the banks and didn't really travel too far from the spot we were fishing. Three different days, once in Oregon and twice in Montana I went hiking through rivers to find the fish. Let me tell you, some of those currents would just love to take you down stream. The two rivers in Montana we were mostly hiking upstream. Let me tell you how great of a work out that is. There was only one time that I thought I was going to be swimming because of the current, but I prevailed.

David and I caught some nice brown trout that we cooked up on Friday. They were delicious. We also caught some beautiful cut throats that we had to release.

6) I got to go to my first gymnastics gym. David's brother-in-law is a gymnast. He and his wife own a gym in Missoula, Montana. We didn't have time to play at the gym, but it was fun to look at some of the equipment and hear about how their business is starting to take off.

7) I went hiking with David and his dad the first day we were in Oregon. It was gorgeous country. We sat on the side of the mountain looking across a canyon and scouted an elk herd. I'm sure that we couldn't see all of them, but I counted 19 elk all on the side of this mountain together, just eating dinner. We found them just as they were getting up for the evening. They was a lot of chatter coming from the herd. It was a neat experience. I love nature!!!

8) As we were driving back to Utah last night, we drove through a huge lightning storm. It stretched all the way from Montana to southern Idaho. It was amazing to see lightning strikes all around you. The colors were magnificent.

So all in all it was a great adventure and makes me love being outside and seeing all the things that God has given us. Makes me grateful to live in such a diverse place, with all of these wonders in our back yard.

Fun in the sun!

I had started this post about a month ago and hadn't posted it. I know that it is now September, but I thought I would post it anyway.

So I felt like July just flew by and I don't know what happened to it. Then I remembered all of the exciting things that happened.

Week 1

Amanda flew in from Tennessee and Michael came to pick her up in Salt Lake City, Utah. We went to the temple open house the next day and then went to visit family on our way to Idaho. On the third we went up to Mesa Falls, which is in Targee National Forest. Michael, Amanda and I hiked down to the lower falls, while my parents went back to the car. On the fourth, Heather, Michael, Amanda and I woke up early around five and drove to the Tetons. Amanda had never seen them before and the drive was gorgeous. Everything was so green because of all the rain we received in June. We then drove home and had a BBQ, well almost. We had a random rain/hailstorm that blew in and out, so we ate inside. Then we drove back to Utah on Sunday. Michael dropped me off and then continued on his way to Tennessee with Amanda.

Week 2

I played volleyball four times this week. In addition to that I also played ultimate frisbee twice. As well as a good game of softball to kick the week off right. Definitely lots of fun in the sun.

Week 3

My friend David invited me to go to Moab with his ward. They went down Thursday and went hiking on Friday, but we had to work so we left Salt Lake City around eight and arrived in Moab around midnight. Then we got up at six thirty, ate breakfast and head out to the river. We rafted down the Colorado River in 104 degree heat. It was a great time and I got a really bad sun burn on the back of my neck. We had life jackets on and that was the one place that I forgot to put sunscreen. We live and learn I guess.

Week 4

I went on a fabulous trip to Oregon with David. His parents have a berry farm up in the mountains. It was an exciting and adventuresome trip. David, his dad and I hiked into this gorgeous meadow and fished for brook trout in this little stream that wandered through the valley. It was great to get away from the hustle and bustle of Salt Lake City. I picked blueberries for the first time. Now I have to tell you these berries came from heaven. I am pretty picky about my berries and have never really loved blueberries, but these made me open my eyes to good fruit.

Another good part of week 4 was that I finished my internship. That was a good day. I finally completed everything I needed to graduate, but still have five classes to complete to get into my physical therapy program.

So all in all July was a great month for adventure.

Another Chapter

So I have another chapter to add to my bed bug story. About a week ago I woke up and found bites again on my hands, arms, and leg. This time it didn't take me anytime to realize that my arch enemy was back to haunt my sleep. Luckily I knew how to handle them this time. I had the day off so I spent it cleaning my entire room again. This time making a more thorough search of my things. I vacuumed out everything under my bed and moved everything I could think of. I checked my sticky traps and sure enough there were a couple of little critters stuck in the stickiness. 

On Tuesday my roommate thought that she might have been bitten as well. That was where I drew that line. It was one thing for me to be eaten alive by the little critters, but it was a whole different ball game for them to attack my roommates. So I decided it was time to buckle down and call the complex office. They gave me the number to Monster Pest control, who I promptly called. I explained my situation and got a bid for my problem. It was a lot more reasonable than I thought it would be. I set up an appointment for the next day and hoped beyond home that the bugs would leave us in peace for the night. 

After a late night and not much sleep (it is hard to sleep sometimes, when you think that there are little bugs running around in your sheets), I woke up to tell my internship I would be coming in late. Then I made sure all my roommates rooms were prepared for de-bugging. There hadn't been cases of bugs it the other rooms, but I would rather be safe than sorry. So around nine twenty, my guy showed up. I have been anxiously awaiting him for about fifteen minutes. I showed him to the battle zone. He did a thorough inspection of the room and then drowned the room in bug killer. 

He found no signs that the bugs had traveled into any other rooms, which I was grateful for. He sprayed along the walls just in case though. He told me that I had done just about everything right, but gave me a few more suggestions. One of which was to put my things in large black trash bags and then to place them in the trunk of my car. This would in essence fry the bugs to death, muahahahaha!!!! Brilliant plan, I said. 

He didn't think that I would have a problem with the bugs in the future, but that I should vacuum my room really well in about two weeks. So hopefully my bed bug saga is over. We hope and pray. 

Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!

So I never knew that I was going to have to face this childhood bedtime story. So when I moved into my apartment my roommate let me have her old bed. It wasn't the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, but I figured it was better than sleeping on the floor. A friend of mine was always trying to find a way to improve my situation. About three weeks ago I got a text from him saying that he had found me a new mattress. Someone had thrown it out and it was just sitting there waiting to be taken. This should have been a sign to me that it was no good. But I took it hoping that I would sleep better at night. A little over a week ago I was sitting outside reading with a couple of my roommates and I looked down at my feet. There were little red dots all over them. I sat there trying to figure out when I had gotten mosquito bites on my feet. I couldn't think of any, plus the fact that I don't react hardly at all to mosquitoes so I thought it was all a little odd. So I just went with it and ignored them.

Thursday morning I woke up with these bites everywhere. They were all over my hands, feet, legs, and arms. I told my roommate that something had to be biting me while I was sleeping. I was working that day for my Uncle Bruce so I asked him if he thought it looked like a spider bite. He said that he didn't think so, but that he would probably wash everything on my bed just to make sure it was gone. When I got home from work I had a bright idea. One of my roommates is almost done with nursing school, so I figured she would know a little bit about bites. I had her take a look at them and told her I thought something was biting at night. She said that I might have bed bugs. She googled them to see what we were looking for. I went and striped my and sure enough there sat a bed bug.

Lucky for me my friend still had my old mattress at his apartment. So I went over and told him that I needed it back and that he had to help me dispose of the old one. So far I threw out the old mattress, dismantled my box spring, vacuumed everything, washed all my bedding, threw out my foam pad and even put out a sticky trap (hoping that I can catch any rogue bugs). I'm not sure what else I can do and hope that the little critters aren't infesting anything else that is by me.

It is hard to say if they are gone. I still have bites all over me and they flare up on occasion. So I'm not sure if I am getting any new bites or if they are just old ones. I've thought about putting a dot or a circle around the ones that I have, just so I know that I already had it. If anyone has ever dealt with this and as some advice I would love to hear it.

Oh and to add to the whole experience last night after roommate prayer, my roommate (trying to be funny) said, "Now don't dream about bed bugs." Not that they weren't already on my mind, but that made it so much worse. Of course I was going to think about bed bugs now. So I pretty much slept horribly last night. I kept waking up thinking bugs were biting me. At 4:00 a.m. I even got up, turned the light on and looked through all my blankets to make sure. so when my alarm went off I was so exhausted. I went into my internship an hour late and was yawning the whole eight hours I was there. So I am going to try and have happy thoughts as I go to bed tonight.

So this is what my little friends look like. If you ever see one KILL IT ! And look for its other little friends.

Life's ever changing plans

So I know that this won't come as much of a shock to most of you, but my plans have changed again. After finally getting registered for my internship last week, I was trying to register for my classes for the fall semester. I sent an email to my advisor and got an email bounced back to me saying that he would be out of town until the 12th. I slowly watched all of my classes fill up and eventually there was nothing left. I finally got an email back from him today saying that I need to petition for an extension on my fast grad application.

Yesterday I decided that I would just try to change my graduation date again. In order for me to apply to physical therapy school I need to have all but four of my prerequisites done by December. I have five left. So I am taking my medical terminology class online in the fall and I got my graduation date changed to April 2010. I guess that is just going to have to be how it is. I was all excited that I was finishing my bachelor's degree in four years, and now it will have been five. Technically I could graduate this semester, but I have to finish those prerequisites before I am officially graduated or BYU-Idaho won't let me attend as a traditional student. Oh the joys of life.

So it looks like I am going to be in Holladay, UT until the end of the year.

My internship is still going really well. The physical therapist loves working with me. If I was getting paid for this I would probably be making around $20/hr for the work that I do. It is fun to see how the patients progress while they are with us. It is sad to see some of them leave because they have such great personalities. Then there are the others that you are just fine not seeing again. I know that isn't a nice thing to say, but it is true.

I just got a new calling in my ward. I am on the Enrichment Committee. We had our first meeting yesterday and are planning a really fun activity for next week. We are teaching the sisters tips for healthier eating and then making Cafe Rio salads all together. It should be really fun and yummy.

I'm trying to think if there is anything else exciting in my life that you should all know about... I've been dental assisting for my Uncle Bruce on my off days from my internship. It is fun to pick up again. Trying to remember all the little steps is like a game. So that has been good.

In my free time I like to play sports with the singles in my area. I play volleyball on Monday nights, ultimate frisbee on Tuesdays, grass volleyball on Wednesday, and they play ultimate on Saturday mornings, which I haven't been able to make it to yet because I keep having family reunions and service projects, but someday I'll make it. So pretty much my life is busy again. Jumping from one thing to another. I have really missed the go go go of life since school got done in April. It is good to feel like I am doing something worth while again.

Internship!!!!

So I just wanted everyone to know that I finally got an internship! I am working in a physical therapy office in Murray, UT. I have a feeling that I am going to have so much fun. The physical therapist I am working with is hilarious. The other people on our side of the building are a blast as well. We just play and joke around all the time, while we are helping our patients of course. I've gotten to work with a lot of cool people and it has only been two days. My favorite patient so far is a 88 year old woman. She is so fun. I learned all about her family today, while I was distracting her from an exercise I was making her do. She hates the bike, but I got her through all ten minutes without her noticing. I am really starting to get a passion for physical therapy. So many fun people in the world to help.

Random things

Just some things I have written:

The Choice

As I struggle through this lifetime,
I’m searching for the truth.
Something to hold onto in my life.

My path has many twists and turns,
I can’t see what’s around the corner.
I wander from the pathway, looking back.

As I stumble, I fall down upon my knees.
Nothing I can do will pick me up again.
I bow my head and cry, weeping for my soul.

I feel thy presence right behind me.
You reach out your hand to me.
Offering me the peace I’ve always longed for.

I look deep into your eyes.
Searching for forgiveness, I thought I’d never find.
The tears stream down my face.

Your eyes see deep into my soul.
I shrink away, trying to find a way to hide.
But you will always see me.

You lift my head up high.
I look again and see the love emanating from those eyes.
Never have I felt so at peace.

You are the light and life of the world.
The pathway stretches out, lit before you.
Straight and narrow is your way.

You’re leading me to heaven
But I must be the one to decide
That choice is still mine.


Discovery

My life is full of twists and turns,
For love, peace and comfort my heart yearns.
With quiet power I journey through life,
Striving to become the best sister, mother and wife.
Softly I whisper, “Thy will be done.”
And try to be led by the father and his son.
He shows me the path laid out just for me.
Strict obedience to his law is the key.
Forgive and forget came the thought to my mind.
I’ve taken upon all, rest your head, ease your mind.
Letting go of the world, looking for light,
It can be found simply by choosing the right.
Life’s little challenges seem like a blur,
When compared with his love, which will forever endure.
Never again will I doubt his existence,
I will give him my trust, let go of resistance.
Just around the next fateful turn
Will be my triumphant, faithful return.

No longer homeless!

Wow, when I said trust in the Lord I didn't know how much I was actually going to have to do that. The apartment in my last post actually ended up falling through. The past couple of weeks have been up and down as far as housing went. One day I had no options, then the next after I decided on a whole new plan I had about five. Two of them weren't really options, but they were out there. One was to move to Logan with Michael and get an apartment together, then Michael got offered a job in Idaho, which oddly enough he is having problem with right now. So that left me just two options. One was an apartment in Holladay, UT. I had been emailing a contact about it and she needed to know if I was going to come down and meet them. I couldn't give her an answer until I checked out my final option.

Many of you may know that I was dating a young man at the beginning of the year. About a month into the semester I was over working myself. I had a full credit load of all the classes that I had put off because I didn't want to take them. (I wouldn't advise doing this.) I was trying to fit in homework and time with my boyfriend. Not feeling like I was giving either of these enough attention, I broke things off with said boyfriend. Most of our issues came from miscommunication, mostly on my side. I forced us to remain friends, which was hard on both sides. So after a challenging and crazy roller coaster semester, he went home to work for a couple weeks. After he left I realized that I had never let go. After a very enlightening conversation, I told him that I would stay in Idaho if he thought we could get back together. He tactfully declined. So there went another option. Now if you have been following this correctly you will notice that I am now down to only one option.

This was hard to coordinate meeting my potential roommates. One had gone to Disneyland and got back late Saturday night. I ended up meeting them Sunday night. They are all really nice. I couldn't stay too long because I was going to Moab Monday morning and I had to get up pretty early. So while I enjoyed Moab immensally, I waited in anticipation for word that the apartment was mine. I had been staying with my old roommate's family and they were amazing hosts. I didn't want to be an inconvenience to them. So Wednesday night I received a text telling me that the spot was mine. I was so excited and relieved to have a place finally.

So yesterday I moved in. I still need to acquire the basic essentials like a dresser and a bed and a desk, but other than that I am pretty set. I'm excited and still a little nervous to start this new chapter in my life. Now all I need is a job and my life will be settled down for a little while I hope.

Trust in the Lord

So I'm always amazed by the ways the lord leads our lives, even if we aren't always listening. With in the past month or so I decided that I was going to move back to Salt Lake City and become a dental assistant. Since I'd lived there before I figured that I would just move back into my old ward and life would be great. Easy as pie, right? Well I planned a trip down to SLC to visit a friend and figured I would ask around to see if I could find someone I knew to live with. I went to church early to talk with my bishop. He suggested I talk to the Relief Society presidents. I had already talked to one of them, but that had kind of fallen through. I thought I would just announce it in Relief Society and be well on my way. Then I was informed that it was the fifth Sunday and Priesthood and Relief Society would be meeting together. My plans were ruined.

So I sat though Sacrament meeting trying to decide what to do. As I was looking around for friends, I saw my ex-boy friend walk in and sat down not ten feet from me in another pew. We didn't end our relationship on the greatest of notes, but I thought that I could handle being in his ward. Not true. I sat there distracted the whole time. After the meeting was over, I decided that maybe I was going about this all wrong. I had been praying and fasting about it for a while, and I knew if I listened hard enough I would be guided. I told my friend good bye and headed back to Idaho. Good thing I didn't stay for the end of church.

As I drove, I was headed right in to the snow storm that had just passed through Utah that morning. It was only to be made worse by our lovely Idaho winds. I had called my mom before I left and told her I was driving home. Luckily due to some promptings I arrived home safe and my car was in one piece. I had a few close calls and the roads were horrible.

I was talking to a friend later that night and he said he had some friends down in SLC that he could talk to for me about housing. As he was giving me options I decided that I should look on craigslist again. After looking through hundreds of ads I thought I had found a place, but the spot was already taken. So I went back to the drawing board again. I think that I have found a place. It is in a new ward, but close enough to family and friends that it won't be a huge ordeal to visit people. I'm still working out the details, but now I can feel secure in looking for a job now.

It just makes me feel good to know that if you put your trust in the lord and do your part things will work out how they are supposed to. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of time for my thoughts and the lords to match up. But that just takes a little bit of practice.

Plasma Adventures

So I'm not sure how many of you have ever sold plasma before. Michael and I started selling in September at the beginning of last semester. We figured we could spend three hours a week in the Plasma center and make $50. That is pretty good money. So I would go in twice a week and make money. I figured that since I was living in Rexburg and it is near impossible to find a job, unless you want to work early morning custodial, that was a pretty good compensation. I'm luck and receive a couple grants and a scholarship so this money was more of a supplemental flow, so that I could save up some cash. Anyway, lets get to my adventures. I hadn't gone in for about two weeks because I was sick with a nasty cold. So yesterday was my first time in a while. There was a few requirements you have to pass each time you go in. You have to weigh more than 110 lbs, your blood protein has to be high enough, you have to have a normal temperature and blood pressure. Luckily I passed all those test (well maybe it would have been better if I hadn't). So I got to go into the back. I think that because I haven't had time to play volleyball this semester my veins have gotten smaller. I only say this because this semester I have had more problems than last.

I'm pretty versed on how the process goes by this point. I know pretty quick if I am going to have problems or not. So I'm just chilling on the bed waiting for them to get the machine set up. Then the phlebotomists plays around with my arm for a little while trying to find my vein. I think it was about this point that I knew there would be problems. So he sticks the needle in my arm and sure enough missed my vein. Now if they don't get it in my vein the first time, I know that at some point before I'm done I'm going to have a clot. So he goes and gets someone else to come fix it. So for a little while they had it going pretty well. I was getting to the end of my first draw and the machine started beeping. This meant that my pressure kept changing, not good. So the draw finishes and we get geared up for the return. It was going really well for about 10 seconds and then all flow stopped. I thought to myself, "This is going to be a long day." Now they had a pint of my blood in the machine. This means that if I don't get it back I can't donate for another eight weeks. Not good for my money flow.

They decide to try my right arm. So they stick it in and he kind of gets it in my vein. He again had to play around with it for a while. Then they start to pump my blood back it. It immediately gets a bubble around the needle. I'm thinking that's not normal. So then they stop. This is going to be a problem, so they go and get the head honcho, experienced plasma guy. We are friends and I interrupted his lunch. He said that if I really wanted to say hi I could have just said so. So he tries to fix that needle, to no avail. I told them they could use another vein if they wanted. Now they had already used the two really accecable veins that I have. Now they go for the ones more to the sides. I had used this vein my first time donating, so I knew what to expect a little. These ones hurt just a little more, but I wanted my blood back. So they stick the needle in. Again with the bubbles. So after that one didn't work he asked me what I wanted to do. I said let's try one more time. So they used the side vein in my other arm. After a minutes, we knew that one wasn't going to work either. I still got paid for my trouble, but I didn't get my blood back.

So now I have two sore arms and some pretty bruises.

The never ending search for an internship

So I am coming to the end of my undergraduate career. January of last year I transfered to BYU-Idaho and within a week of being here I changed my major to Exercise Science. I had finally found something I enjoyed learning about. It was an interesting feeling. Now the hard part comes....in April I will be finished with classes. All that I have left to do is one credit worth of an internship. The only problem with that is that I have no clue what to be when I grow up. I've searched google I don't know how many times. But when the only thing you have to put in is Exercise Science Internship, you get everything possible in the universe except for something you really want to see. So if any of you has any grand ideas of what you think I would be great at, let me know. Also if you hear of any interesting internships just pass that along as well. In the mean time I will continue my search. Wish me well and if any of you want to pray for me I wouldn't argue.

I hate Fridays!!!

Okay, so I know that everyone loves Fridays. It is the last day of the week and then you get to destress and enjoy your weekend, right? WRONG!!! So let's review what my Friday consists of. One good thing is I can sleep in for an extra hour, good thing because I went to bed late (again). Then my joy begins with my first class at 10:15. University Choir isn't a bad way to start off your day, but after sing high A's for a half an hour I'm pretty beat. At 11:30 I get to head off to the baine of my existence "Physics 105." It is here that my patience is tried each and every day. My teacher has the mentality teach them to teach themselves. He takes it just a little too far. When I don't understand something I ask a question, only to be met in opposition with another question from my teacher. After I've made it through that hour, I head down the hill to Exercise Physiology. This is one of my most stimulating classes, but still frustrating. At this point I'm starving because I haven't eaten since 9:00. After I get done with this I head up to Sports Nutrition at 2:00. I don't know how to take this class yet. My teacher actually happens to be my Nutrition teacher from ISU. How crazy is that? After this class I had over to what I think will be the death of me. A two and a half hour Physics lab. Again this is taught by the same teacher I have for my lecture class (which he doesn't lecture in.) So pretty much I am exhausted, hungry and frustrated out of my mind by the time 5:30 comes around. Yay!! I finally get to go home. You think to yourself, now I can relax. Only to remember all of the homework you just got assigned which will be due bright and early Monday morning. :) So as for me, I am currently loathing Fridays.

Ready to Return

So the time is drawing near that I get to venture back up to the world of ice and snow. Rexburg has been calling my name for at least a week now. That is really a weird feeling. I was so ready for school to be done in December, but now I'm ready to go back. I think that three weeks has been too long of a time to sit around doing nothing. Not that I don't do anything all day, but after the grueling hours of class and studying, having to schedule out every minute of my time so I made sure to get everything done and now having no responsibilities, I'm ready to go back. I've found that life is not fulfilling to me unless I am being productive. I've started to wonder what I am going to do once I graduate. I'm going to have to find something to do that pushes my comfort zone and challenges me to become smarter, more intelligent and more efficient.

It is funny because I am not the only one that is ready to return. Four of my roommates are returning for the semester. We all agree that we are ready to return to living on our own. We all love our families, but we just aren't meant to live with them anymore (well not for extended periods of time, anyway). We are excited to see each other again. We have all grown fond of each other over the past four months. I'm so glad that I finally found a group of girls that all gets along, for the majority of the time. That is hard to find when you mix six girls together. Don't get me wrong we still have our disagreements and misunderstandings, but for the most part it is really fun.