Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Finals, spring fever, and some change

Finals are over and with their demise so went another semester... Time sure does fly... My tests this semester didn't finish me off... I live to fight again! I got a 91% on my New Testament final!!! After I finished I checked my score on the little monitor screen they have displaying them and next to my score was a little "Way to go!" *giggle* Its possibly the first "good job" comment I've gotten here at the Y... I am just a terrible test taker...

Anyway, Bryce graduated with his BS in Business Management (emphasis in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources)... wow that's a mouthful... We went to commencement and convocation this past weekend. Commencement was really interesting and I am glad I went. President Uchtdorf was given an honorable doctorate and he and Elder Nelson spoke along with a couple other pretty good messages. The convocation was the next day (the 24th) and just for the Marriott Business school. Still, It started at 5:00 and lasted until 8:00. Bryce's younger sister, Lindsey and I had the opportunity to sit and chat for a while though... :D It was great to be with his family and support my boy. Plus, he is pretty attractive in that gown of his... ;}

My darling Ica left me on Saturday for another... She left me for some Walt Disney character... *sigh*... She'll be back, she has to. I still have most of her clothes! :D That being said, there are only 4 in our apartment right now. I have two new roommates. Annie is pretty nice and very patient. She is from Provo and likes to run and ride her bike anywhere. She has randomly gone for a ride up the canyon the past couple of days since the sun has started shining...

Our other new roommate and I are the two sharing the room. Her name? yep I'm sure you guessed it... Jessica. :) And I am not kidding... I really like her. She is really nice, rather quiet but we've enjoyed some late-night chats once or twice. Jessica is from Washington, Seattle area as I understand and has a brother about to get married here in the next couple of months. She served her mission in Tulsa, Texas and just got home. She's kinda missing it but we're breaking her in! ;)

Just a quick update on the goings-on down here in Provo! Hope life is going great for ya'll!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Major Decisions and the Final Answer

As a student one is faced with all sorts of challenging decisions each and every day... What will I wear today? Will this be on a test? Will the slides be posted online or do I need to copy them word for word? What shall I eat? Can I afford that? Will I do my homework tonight?... The list can go on and on. It is amazing that we don't fall over with exhaustion by mid-day... (this usually happens around... mid-night...)

One of the biggest challenges for me has been what to do with my life. I have wanted to be a high school history teacher since I was a sophomore in high school... and when I got to BYU I immediately declared a history teaching major. I quickly ran into some obstacles in the advisement center and I couldn't figure out what I needed to do. Then one fateful day I sorta stumbled across another major that will encompass more things and will make me more marketable as a teacher looking for a job... it is a composite major meaning I get to taste a little bit of a lot of different things. Teaching Social Sciences means that I will be able to teach not only history but government and citizenship, sociology, psychology, and geography. I was very excited about the news and have worked these past two semesters to catch up on the classes I need to apply for the program. This semester especially...

I have now, as of today, officially changed majors. According to the university now I am a pre-teaching social sciences major (as I have not been accepted into the program yet...) it was very exciting. I filled out this little card and then she put into a box... yeah... I know, how can I stand the excitement? :) I am now on a track toward a composite teaching degree. There still stands the question, what happens if I am not accepted? there are two options... spend another year getting other classes out of the way or change the major once again... this is something that I am not taking lightly... but I know that Heavenly Father is watching out for me and has my best interests and the interests of my future loved ones at heart.

The semester draws to a close in just a few short days and I prepare to take the dreaded finals... My fingers are crossed and my prayers are sent to heaven for a successful finals week. I hope to pull of some fairly decent grades this time... I am a horrible test taker and the testing center doesn't help... I have 5 tests this semester and 3 of these are scheduled from 11:00-2:00. At least they are all on separate days... but they will be long ones! But as my New Testament professor says, "you don't need luck, you need knowledge."

The best of knowledge to all y'all that have tests to work on as well. And for those who don't... please keep us students in your prayers... they would be greatly appreciated!!! Here's to a great end of the school year!!!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Twenty Years Old!!!


Yep that's right! I am officially not a teen any longer! I cannot believe that I am old enough to be twenty though... I am constantly finding myself in the crossroad decisions that for all my life I have thought of them as a distant future.

My roomies took great care of me this weekend by throwing me a surprise party on Thursday(and it surprised me about 4 different times...). Every birthday Megan has decorated a surprise cake for the birthday girl and is getting very good. It was amazing!!! When they first went to "reveal" the cake they showed me an empty pan and Megan said, "oh no! The cake is lost!" The party was a luau theme corresponding with the cake. Yes, my cake was shaped and decorated like the island from LOST. It was pretty fun and rather exciting. :D I've never had a surprise party before. My roomies also took me to lunch at Tucanos between sessions on Saturday. That was a great meal too! (although it was just after we had listened to the whole "provident living" talk by Elder Hales...) I just love these girls and I also discovered that I do have friends. Believe me, that was a welcomed discovery. :D Thanks to all who came to celebrate with me.






After the party Ica, Bryce, Jake, and I all went out into the torrential rain and found some amazing puddles to jump in. A few minutes after we left we were drenched to the bone! We played until we got numb and finally went back in to dry off. For someone who is turning such an age, you would think I'd be over the whole puddle-jumping phase...



On Friday Bryce made me feel like a princess. :) He gave me a beautiful bracelet that sparkles a little and actually fits! (my wrists are a little on the small side...) I am quite impressed. :D After classes I was taken up to Luganos (Italian restaurant in Salt Lake City) for dinner and then to Monsters vs. Aliens 3D. It was a great movie I enjoyed it. The 3D was very much worth it, and Bryce agrees with me. ;) While we were standing there waiting to be seated a little girl came up to us and told me that I looked very pretty tonight and that I would love the movie! :D She was so cute and it totally made an already great day even better. It was a spectacular evening and I am so head-over-heels for that boy I could stay in the clouds forever... ;) (sorry a little sappy... but its true...)





Saturday Mom and I got to spend some time in the evening together. We ate a Zupas, found some cute shoes, visited with Grandma and Linda, and watched Mama Mia. Another great movie I really enjoyed. Sunday we celebrated Easter/Jessica's family dinner together. It was fun to have the family around. Plus, I got a giant skillet/pan... thing!!! I am so excited and I am currently hiding it from my roommates... I also got an adorable apron from my mom and I LOVE it! I will show it off as soon as I have a good picture...

All this partying has made me very tired... or I'm just getting old and can't get around as easily as I used to... (I personally think its the latter... but I am constantly told otherwise) *sigh* another year older, there is question as to whether there is wiser included... It is interesting to look back even just over the past year to see just how much I have learned about life and have grown in my testimony. Its mind-boggling to think about where I was a year ago... I can't wait to see what the next year will hold in store for me!!!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Cupcakes Can Kill You

BYU A Capella Club presents: The A Capella Jam!

A collection of different Barbershop and A Capella groups got together to perform for their audience. BYU is known as a "hotbed" for this type of music and as one could imagine, the groups were amazing! I did feel like Simon on American Idol... Bryce and I ended up discussing the different strengths and weaknesses with each performance, but I did thoroughly enjoy myself.

One of my favorite groups is a group of 9 girls who call themselves Noteworthy. They were AMAZING! Their harmony and blend was so in tune with each other that it was hard to recognize that you were not listening to music... just voices. Their percussionist, Courtney, was better than some men I have seen. As a girl, that talent is very hard to come by. I was very, very impressed. Their second song was an arrangement of Come, Come Ye Saints and when they sang I had goosebumps appear all over! I could just feel the song... *sigh* it was great!

(noteworthyladies.com)

Another performer was a sort of "one-man-band". His performing name is Mr. Tim and he is actually has shows in Vegas... (don't worry he's family friendly...) Tim had his apple computer there and demonstrated a live looping with himself to sing a song with himself... it was absolutely amazing and really fun to watch. His last song was all about how cupcakes can kill you. It was pretty funny... and he had close to 10 different things looping around with his song. During his song he had a ninja fight on stage with a hostess cupcake. He won, but only barely... It was pretty good. If you are interested, the link to that particular song of his is below...

http://www.mistertimdotcom.com/music/CUPCAKESmix03.mp3

Anyone who is familiar with music groups at BYU is also familiar with the group called Vocal Point. It is the top A Capella group that comes from our university. They, of course, were the finale group. For their first song they started out in the audience and came up like zombies while starting the song "Thriller". Their choreography was phenomenal and I forgot that I was listening to A Capella, not music... I am still trying to wrap my head around it! :D Of course their numbers were amazing and we had them on for an encore... Their encore piece was a Russian song that I have found on youtube.com. Its as good as I can find to show you how amazing this song was. I was very impressed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYTcYMheGt0&feature=related
(the musicians are a little creepy... but the singer is absolutely amazing)

Anyway, That's a whole lot of nothingness... just me babbling on... Maybe one day, I'll write something significant here... but what fun is that?

P.S. At least its a little new culture right?