Here's to you, Abe/ Disclaimer on the Disclaimer

So this weekend I went down to Provo, to hang out with Alyse, Tommy, my mom, Grandma and Grandpa Murphy, Alec, Tyler, Grace, Tanner..... to name a few. The drive down was... interesting to say the least. All I'm going to say is if someone's going 75 miles an hour, they're NOT going too slow so stop calling them names. Needless to say, I was excited to get to Alyse, Tommy and my mom. We went to dinner at this amazing Brazilian place. AMAZING. They kept coming around and offering these cuts of meat... after a while I just had to pass on it because I was so so so so full. I wanted to go hang out with Alec and his friends afterwards, but I had gotten about 3 hours of sleep the night before so I was falling asleep on the couch by the time I got to Grandma and Grandpa Murphy's house.
Saturday we had brunch with the Murphy cousins, and Grace! Turns out Grace and Jenica are friends at BYU, which is awesome! We had always hoped they would be. So there was Grace, Jenica, Jolysa, Aubrey, Alyse, Tommy and I from the cousins. While we were there, Grandpa cornered all of us and asked if we read his emails. That he sends out about 5 or 6 times a day. The forwards we used to like when we were 12? Yeah, those. Not to mention some slightly inappropriate emails... that are usually crazy right wing "Obama and Palin suck campaigns". We all hemmed and hawed in our seats, then finally agreed on "we scan through them, but it's hard to when you have so many emails from you a day". While we were there, Tommy bought us all Valentine's chocolates. What a nice brother-in-law. I'm pretty sure at one point the discussion at the table was child birth. My favorite...
Then afterwards my mom, Alyse and I just hung out. We haven't been able to do that for a while, so it was really nice. Even though I kept getting kicked under the table for texting. We went to "Quilted Bear", as per my mom's request, and kind of just made fun of all the different signs there. Mormon culture... so cute. I should have brought my camera and taken pictures. After, we went and stopped by Alec's place, and saw him and Barrett and Tucker. We had Brick Oven pizza waiting for us, so we cut the visit short.
The next day (Valentine's Day) was Tyler's homecoming. He had just gotten home from his mission in Ukraine, for those that don't know. AKA it was going to be a party, with all the Myres BYU cousins there.
After his talk, some of us decided we didn't want to go to Sunday School. So we made our own... I think Tucker got the best picture of all of us afterwards. We actually did make our own lesson, so we weren't total sinners.I got to meet Jared and Amy's new baby, Heath Elton. What a cutie.

I also stuffed my pockets with Skittles to bribe Tate to sit by me, but the 21 year olds ended up eating all of it. Tate also said he would be my mom's Valentine, but he was actually mine. Obviously... who could resist this face?

The best part is he was in the middle of eating a cookie, and I asked him if I could take a picture and he stopped what he was doing and cheesed for me.
Monday morning my mom left, which was a sad day. I really did have fun with her. And no, the fact that we don't have pictures isn't an indication of my love for you. We just don't take a lot of pictures together i guess.
However, i DID get In-N-Out before going to the airport. I had to take the shuttle back up to Rexburg because my ride wasn't leaving until like 6 at night, which was way too late for me.

So it was a great weekend. I missed all my cousins, and being down there made me kind of jealous that they all get to hang out. However, I've already started scheming a return trip next month. Thanks for the good timing on the birthday, Abraham Lincoln.

Ok ok ok. Disclaimer on the disclaimer. I do NOT have a boyfriend. All it means is my home teacher likes me, and I like him, and we're going to go on dates. That's ALL. Mom, don't worry- I'm not going to lose my head.

Disclaimer

I'm going to write about my weekend in Utah next post... promise.
Ok, so since people seemed concerned... I am NOT depressed. I love BYUI, and I love my family and friends. That was just word vomit on my blog. I do not like watching friends throw away their lives (i'm not going to say names for obvious reasons), but i guess the positive side is that it makes me raise my own standards for relationships of my own.

Slightly Bitter Sounding

Only because it's the night before Valentine's Day, and I'm sitting at the computer typing on my blog. But I think that just means I'm out of town.
I'm just glad that I have a weekend to get out of Rexburg... I really needed it. Some things were starting to fall into place literally hours before I left, but this semester's something of a train wreck. I really appreciate the true friends I have, because they're few and far between. It kind of sucks watching my friends want to marry the wrong people, and throw their lives away. Who knows if it will even last... all it makes me want to do is not get married any time soon, at least until I find the right person who is the opposite of what I've seen in these boys. Rexburg is kind of a hole at times... especially when I know all my cousins are down here and have each other. I love to socialize, but I know that you are stigmatized by the people you associate yourself with... which is why I can't wait to move out and start new. This weekend will be good for me. We'll just see how excited I am to go back.

Nerds vs. Jocks Night

 

Last night was Gabrielle's birthday, so we had to make it fun. Fortunately, Locus Music was putting on a dance party titled "Nerds vs. Jocks"... meaning we got to dress up. First we made dinner for her, which ended up turning out well (which is always a relief), despite people throwing Peanut M&Ms at my head while I was checking on the chicken. I was kind of more of a wannabe, but whatever. I did the Britney Spears "You Drive me Crazy" hairstyle, and had my argyle knee length socks on. We only stayed at the party for like an hour, because there were some high school kids (that somehow got in, as it was supposed to be 18+) that were being disgusting on the dance floor. Maybe they were freshmen... those kids always try to be as crazy as possible as they have never been away from their parents before. It was a night of pocket protectors, sports jerseys, Daisy Dukes, sweatervests, crimped hair, etc etc etc. Happy Birthday Gabrielle!

Sunday School Day 1

So I taught Sunday School for the first time on Sunday... It was one of the scariest moments of my life. My class ended up being about 75% RMs, which intimidated me a little bit more. Here they had served a mission for two years learning alllll about the Church and its teachings, and I was supposed to teach them a lesson? Ha, that's a joke.  My friend Mitch advised me that if I read the lesson the Sunday BEFORE, and thought about it through the week, I would find ways to connect it to the class' lives, and the issue of getting the class to discuss wouldn't be so bad. I decided to take his advice, and it worked. My mom called me a few days into the week, and told me about this talk by Elder Scott, titled "To Help a Loved One in Need". My lesson plan was about Cain vs Enoch, and their attitudes towards God. However, while reading this talk I knew that I had to take it a different direction. Instead, I made my lesson about the wayward child. It was a pretty tender subject, and I was crying a lot in the library while preparing it... which probably made people wonder who died. But I felt confident in what I had done, and just prayed that it was the right choice.
D Day rolled around, and I was standing in front of the class wondering what the Sunday School president (who was sitting in the back just to watch me) had gotten me into. Some of my friends (RMs) were sitting in the third row directly in front of the podium. I didn't know until afterwards that they had a game going to see who could make me laugh and smile the most. It worked. When I stood up and announced "so I decided to take the lesson a different direction", Mitch gave me the thumbs up. I had people read scriptures and quotes, and felt like it was successful. I only started to cry a little bit once, while sharing a story. When I looked up and there were 15 minutes left of class, i thought "ohhhh shoot". However, the best thing happened. People began raising their hands, and shared experiences they had had, and took up 10-12 (not a joke this time Alyse) of the remaining minutes. Afterwards, I got plenty of hugs and "good jobs" from people.
In other news, referring to a missionary in the possessive is one of my new pet peeves. He is NOT yours, he is the Lord's... until he gets home. That's all.

Mysterious Ways

So in my most recent post, I was feeling rather yucky.
Well, I watched "7 Pounds" tonight. And if someone hasn't seen the movie and doesn't want it to get ruined for them, don't continue reading, because I'm going to spill it. I am so amazed at the sacrifice Will Smith made for total strangers. I can only imagine the guilt he felt after causing an accident that killed 7 people, including his fiancee. But he repaid that sevenfold... literally. the fact that he found someone who had his same blood type with a faulty heart was amazing. Then he went and gave up his own life for her. In the end, he donated part of his liver, bone marrow, a lung lobe, eyes, his house, and his heart to seven random strangers. That honestly got me thinking about the Atonement. Perhaps because I'm thinking of my Sunday School lesson that I need to finish. But really. Think about the ultimate sacrifice given in both situations. Needless to say, it was powerful. And makes me want to be a better person.

I don't get mad, I just get even

When life gives you lemons, you just take them and throw them at someone else. That's my motto. It makes you feel a little bit better, at least.
It's been a long week. We can start with 3 hours in the library Monday night (longest i've spent in the library all semester), followed by a group meeting on Tuesday for a project I didn't know I had. It was due Thursday. Fortunately all I had to plan was 3 minutes of information on Learning Disabilities in the workplace. Wednesday night was just as miserable. I got up early to do laundry, dishes, and practice the piano for the ward Talent show that night. I couldn't believe I had signed myself up for this. I haven't signed up for a talent show (minus the wonderful "Jai Ho!" dance last semester, but that was everyone) since 4th grade. And then, i was-yep- playing the piano. This time I decided to play the piano and sing. The song I chose was "Breathe" by Anna Nalick. I had to change a word or two, but it was easy and has a good message. I had 3 classes back to back, then a group meeting for the same group. These girls need to CHILL OUT. They were snapping at each other back and forth over the table for an hour and a half. I just sat there in a half asleep stupor. The talent show was... exciting. Tons of people playing the piano. That's why I don't like going to talent shows. Someone's always better than me at the piano, and at singing. But I did it , and I think I did fine. Then I had to write my 3 minutes of information. I was so tired by the end of the day Thursday, I planned for a 3 hour nap. However, some roommates forget that since I sleep right by the bathroom, I can hear EVERYTHING they say when they're in there. So it was only a 45 minute nap. Along the way, I found out something that made me kind of sad. BUT... don't worry. Nothing an hour and a half at the gym couldn't cure. I would have gone for longer, but I was falling asleep. Now, we're plotting a prank that will be funny, and totally undectectable.

Sledding

For those who didn't see the videos/pictures on Facebook, here are the highlights:

Laundry Ranting/Raving/Venting (and stories from this weekend)

While BYU Idaho is an institution that is ordained of God, there are definitely some facilities that are less than celestial. One is this stupid laundry system. You think that since Tuscany is one of the newer apartment complexes around campus, we would be able to have free laundry. At the least, CHEAP. However, that is not Tami's plan for us. I think she's some type of vampire, except instead of sucking our blood from our necks she's draining our wallets for her own gain. Example? Charging me $30 for not sweeping BEHIND the fridge at checkouts. Sorry, i forgot we eat off the floor back there. And charging us because we had a candle lit away from anything else last night. Anyway, laundry. It's $1.25 to wash and another dollar to dry. So, $2.25 to do a load. Multiply that by 4, and you get $9. Per week? Yeah right! If there's 12 weeks in the semester, that's over $100 I'm spending on laundry alone. And you can't combine loads in the dryer, because it won't dry the clothes. So basically, I've devised a new plan of attack. Many of my clothes do not need to be washed every week. That sounds gross, but I'm not being unhygienic. For example, my jeans are always super tight, they can afford to stretch out a little bit and be normal until I wash them again. I also have enough clothes to last a few weeks, I just usually wear the same 10 shirts over and over again. I just don't get why we have to empty our wallets every week looking for quarters to feed this infernal machine.
At any rate, I had a spectacular fall last night at the pool. I was running after a ball, which was kind of scary because it was on slick tiles and Cody was running after me. I had this vision of me sliding in front of the ball, rolling into the pool, while managing to hit Cody in the face with the ball as I went under. Instead, you remember that scene from "Free Willy" when the kid falls in front of the killer whale tank and hits his head on the cement? It probably looked like that. Fortunately my hip has a lot of cushioning, otherwise it might have REALLY hurt. As it is, i'm going to have a spectacular bruise there. As i slowly rolled my mass into the pool, they asked if I was ok. I was hurt, but why would I tell them that? So now I'm sore because of working out and eating it on the tiles last night.
At any rate, I just got my calling. Sunday School teacher. Ironic, eh? Love it, our FHE brother recommended me to the bishop. And then some of the boys came over and gave Lindsay a blessing, since she was coughing up a storm. So cute that we have friends who can do that.

First week of the Coldest Semester Yet.

As I left Monday morning (Yes, I've been here for less than 5 days), it was 50 degrees at 5 in the morning. As I thought about what I was going to, I wondered again why I was so excited to go back to Idaho. The flight and drive were pleasant but uneventful, besides James turning onto the Legacy Parkway, which took us off course for a while. My first step out of his truck when we finally got to Tuscany was directly onto the most slippery patch of ice in Rexburg, resulting in my feet sliding out from underneath me. I pretended it didn't happen, since no one saw, but internally I knew it was Rexburg letting me know what I was in for. When we got into my apartment, the power was out. Another classic Rexburg move. But the three letters sitting on my bed waiting for me made up for it- from Elder Cornwell, Elder Green, and Elder Wong.
School was remarkably uneventful. The most exciting part of the week was missing my weight training class because I couldn't print out my schedule. As is standard, those known as my "crew" left this weekend to go to Utah. Which left me in my apartment with half the people there. That trick gets remarkably old after a while... I hate being left here by the people i'm supposed to be the closest to. But I guess all that means is that I'm supposed to go make new friends. I'm good at that.
We got our new FHE group this semester- it seems like it's going to be a good semester. Hopefully it will be better than our last semester's group... But I don't think it could be worse. At least three other people are from California, one from San Diego, which makes me happy. We'll have something in common. That's basically it for right now... I'm just bracing myself for a long week ahead. Only the second of the semester.