The Call

I totally agree with the quote above.  And just the other day, I was listening to the song I have posted below, entitled, "The Call" by Regina Spector (Who I LOVE).   I've heard the song a bajillion times, but for some reason the words and tune totally HIT me, and perfectly capture how I've been feeling lately.  Give it a little listen, even if you have already heard the song.  It's beautiful!

The song is beautiful, and happy, and sad, and hopeful, and all about change, and progress, and following the call.  All things I've been feeling lately.  

I guess you could say that I"m completely nervous and scared to leave comforts of my farm on West Mountain, and my wonderful family and friends whom I love so dearly.  But over and over in my mind this scripture keeps popping up in my  head:

Life has been a little crazy lately, but I have felt the love of my Heavenly Father, and I know that things are going to be alright, and that while change is hard, it is a good thing.  I know that in serving the lord for 18 months, not only will I be able to help bring others unto Christ, but I will be bringing myself unto Christ as well.  With that knowledge, I have no need to fear.  

thoughts..

I've definitely needed this reminder over the past few days.  Sometimes I find myself getting so caught up in my own Marissa World, with my own problems and my own challenges and I too easily forget to step back and remember that eternal perspective and that my Heavenly Father has not left me to struggle alone.  Rather, He is always watching over me and is aware of what I'm facing.  He is with me through my joys and through my challenges.  He KNOWS and CARES about me, and you and is willing and wanting to help us!  

  The past few weeks have literally been a whirlwind of emotions.  Since when did I become so emotional? .Ugh, must be what happens when you hit 2 decades.  Control of emotions goes out the window.  I thought that's what was supposed to end after puberty? You're all liars! ;)  I think these roller coaster emotions have come because I've found myself (or put myself)  under a constant stress and pressure to do certain things and to make some very important choices.   I've come to realize that things are never going to be completely picture perfect.  That there are going to be challenges, and that whatever plan you have for yourself is not necessarily what God has in mind for you.  Learning to accept and understand Gods will above my own has always been a challenge for me, and boy is he putting me to the test.

Despite all of these crazy emotions and and concerns of mine, I am extremely happy!  Life is so good, as cliche as that sounds.  It really is, and alot of it has to do with the wonderful people in my life.  I have amazing parents, siblings, buds, friends, coworkers, roommates, neighbors, and most importantly, I have the gospel in my life.   I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of Jesus Christ and his gospel.  I'm so grateful for my Savior, t he atoned for the sins of the world.  I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that I am never alone.  I'm grateful that despite all of my concerns and challenges, Christ knows exactly what I'm going through.  I honestly am sad for those who don't have that knowledge in their lives.  The world would seem a whole lot scarier without it.

  Things are going to be getting crazier and crazier the closer it gets to January, but for right now in this very moment, despite the fact that I have to write a paper and this is how I'm procrastinating, I am so happy.  I really am.

 "May your days be merry and Bright, and may all your Christmases be white!"

Times be Changing

Whew.

The last few weeks have been such a whirlwind!  I've definitely had a lot on my mind.  More than the usual college stuff.

So guess what?

I'M GOING ON A MISSION!

But before I get ahead of myself, let's rewind shall we?

A few months ago my home ward bishop pulled me in and talked to me about serving a mission.  At the time, the possibility of a mission was more than a year away, so I wasn't stressing too much about it.  But after that interview, I really began thinking about a mission seriously.  I knew that next fall I would either be preparing for a mission, or going to study abroad in London (maybe be married you say? Uh.. hahaha...).  The application for Study Abroad was due in the beginning of November, so I had been feeling serious pressure to make the decision this fall as to whether I'd be on a mission, or in London.

Fast forward a few weeks.  As General Conference was coming up, I was still very much undecided as to what to do in regards to my future.  I decided to keep praying about it and hoped that during General Conference, I would have some sort of direction and idea of what I was to do.

Well, I definitely got my answer.  When President Monson announced that girls could now go on missions at 19, the entire time I just kept getting the impression that, "This is for you Marissa, this is your answer."

My first impression? Yikes!  I mean, my whole life just changed.  That sounds so dramatic, and it kind of is, but it's also true. Plus the idea of leaving my family and friends and putting my life on hold for 18 months is quite scary.

Needless to say, I didn't get a whole lot out of General Conference after that first announcement. My mind kept racing 3 billion miles a minute.  Ya.  

I was 90% certain I would serve by the end of general conference weekend, but I still felt that deciding to go on a mission was something I needed to sift around in my mind and mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepare myself for.  I met with my home ward Bishop a few days later, just to get an idea of the time that mission papers would take and what all would be required.  Coming out of that interview, I felt really good about going, but I still wasn't 100%.

As the next couple of days went by, I could not get the idea of going on a mission out of my head.  Why wouldn't I serve?  What was holding me back?  I kept getting the impression that I had been so blessed in my life, who better than I to go serve the Lord and help him further the work?

 I know that a mission is going to be hard. SO HARD.  I've had enough family serve, I've read their letters, I've heard the stories. And yet, it feels so right. I know there are going to be some very dark days, but there will also be priceless experiences that I will treasure forever.

Once I knew that the mission was no longer an "if" but a "when," I had a really hard time deciding on the "when."  Do I stay and leave after Winter semester, so the end of April? Do I go right after Fall, so in a few short months?

There were too many pro's and con's to both options, so I decided to leave it up to the Lord. My availability date is January 2nd, so I could go then, or 4 months later in May.  Ya, the ambiguity is killing me too....

So now you're up to date.   I've submitted my papers and am expecting to get my call on Halloween (let's hope!)

Sometimes it feels so surreal that I'm actually going to serve a mission! Trust me.  I was that girl growing up that was like, "Oh no way! The whole mission thing just isn't for me. No thank you."  Sometimes I feel like that 10 year old girl inside me is still freaking out at me, but too many times have I felt the spirit witness to me that this is what I'm supposed to do.

I'm excited to serve the Lord.  I don't care where I get called to serve, I honestly don' t  I'm just excited for this big opportunity.  I probably don't have a clue what I'm getting myself into, but it's going to be great because the Lord is on my side.

I know that this gospel is true.  I know that the Lord knows us so well.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that President Thomas S. Monson is the Lords' mouthpiece today.

 I know it, I live it, I love it.

- Marissa out.

Ps: I love BYU campus in the Fall.  

Happy Autumn!

Scarier then anything you'll see at Halloween

Oh man.

Midterms.

Memorize everything you've ever read, the dates they were written, and the historical impact they had on the world.

Take that knowledge and go write essays on them.  No essay prompt, just a Date.  Expound on that date.

do that 5 times.

OH, that's only the first fourth of the test.

Identify
Explain
Distinguish
Explicate

Welcome to my life.

Did I mention I sometimes really really hate college?

5 midterms.

I got this.

On a brighter note, T-swifts new song came out.  I love it.  It's pretty decent. Give it a little listen.

Enjoy.

Superheroes, Summer, and Future Semesters

Oh hello blog, long time no see!

This summer has just flown by and fall semester is right around the corner.  I find myself wondering what I did with all the "down time" I've had.  I'm going to be honest, as I've mentioned in the previous post, my social life on the boy front has been a little lacking, and i'm okay with that for the most part because all the boys in my life have chosen to serve missions. So I'd really rather be in this boy deprived situation than have them not serve missions.  But until fall semester starts and I meet new people, I've been keeping myself preoccupied with a few choice superheroes this summer.

My first superhero crush is a member of the avengers....   this fella right here:

And i'll admit, he is quite a bit older than me, but still, Tony Stark has got some serious style.  He is one of my favorite superheroes because he has an attitude, he's funny, and well, he's a "billionaire genius playboy philanthropist." What's not to love?

However, when watching the avengers, I also developed a silly schoolgirl's crush in this fine fellow:

He's like a manly version of Legolas.  Not to say Legolas isn't manly, but...ya okay, i guess that's what i'm saying ;)

But perhaps the biggest superhero crush I developed was on this fine specimen:

I serious LOVE him. As Spider man, and as Andrew Garfield.  He may have suprassed Zac Efron on the celebrity crush scale, and that's saying ALOT! I guess I've always had a thing for the "cool nerds."  If you didn't go see the Amazing Spiderman, I'd highly recommend it.  It merely tickled my fancy because it was funny, a little bit more of a lighthearted setting then other superhero movies lately, and I thought he did a great job as spiderman. But I am very clearly biased so who knows if you'll enjoy it.

And then finally, after having just barely seen The Dark Knight Rises, I must say that i have quite an admiration for the Mr. Christian Bale...or Bruce Wayne, whichever you'd prefer.

I'm not going to lie, when I first saw Batman Begins several years ago, I wasn't the biggest fan.  The show was a bit dark for me...and  there were lots of explosions and creepy things.  But in light of the new show coming out and how everyone said that it was SO GOOD, I figured i'd give the series a second chance, and boy I'm glad that I did.  I loved Batman Begins. The Dark Knight was good, but still a bit dark for me.  And then The Dark Knight Rises just blew. my. mind.  It converted me to the Batman bandwagon.


Too bad these men don't exist in real life *sigh.  I mean, I guess they do, but there are a bajillion reasons why it would never work out.  Besides, as I've learned in my 19 long  years of life, I would never really want to marry a celebrity. Bleh, that hollywood life does not appeal to me, but it still is fun to daydream about spiderman ;)

So aside from watching superhero movies all summer, I did go to New York.  I don't have any pictures on this computer so that will have to wait for another post...although don't get on the edge of your seat because it may never happen.

I also just got back from an amazing family reunion with my ENTIRE family.  It was so fun to have all of us there.  The older I get, the more I realize how cool/fun/awesome/kind/amazing/everything my family is.  I love them!

But alas, the summer is coming to a close and it's time to move on to the future semester. I am very excited for school, although last night i sort of had an anxiety attack about it.  However, upon waking up in the morning, things were seen in a better light (that's usually what a good nights sleep does for ya) and while I'm still anxious about a few things, life is going to be great.

A few goals i have for this fall semester are these:

- Exercise at least 5 times a week.
- Pack healthy lunches every day so that I don't become a vending machine junkie like last year
- Be on top of homework
- Be in bed by 11 O'clock on the week days. (This one is going to be a  killer, but I've got work at 8am every morning so it's got to be that way)
-Learn how to cook healthy dinner meals, as opposed to frozen dinners from a box.
-Date lots of boys
-Be 100% in my visiting teaching. (i'll admit, last year I slacked off bit time)
-Read my scirptures every day. (I'm not taking a religion class this semester so It's important for me to get my daily dosage of scripture time)

Hopefully I can maintain these goals throughout the whole semester.  And i'm going to throw it out there so as to help motivate me, I'm not going to be eating ANY sugar except for on Halloween night, Thanksgiving day, and then during Christmas Break i'll indulge myself a little more.  Hopefully that will help me feel and perform better in my day to day routine.

Here's to a great semester!

I"m gonna be a part of it!

Hello world

Long time no write :)  So sorry about that.  Nothing too eventful or blog post worthy has happened in the past few months.  I've moved home for the summer and have basically been working 2 jobs all summer.  My social life you ask?  Well, it's basically nonexistent.  Okay, not nonexistent, but compared to college and what not, it's much bleaker.  The only people I hang out with are my girl friends, (who I LOVE and am so grateful to them for hanging out with me this summer) and the last few boy stragglers who have yet to leave on their missions.  Seriously.  Every single boy worth mentioning in my life (romatnically at least) is gone, gone, gone.

*sigh

But... never fear, for new and exciting things are happening for this Miss Marissa.  I'm going to NEW YORK CITY!!!!!!!!

Let me repeat:

NEW YORK CITY!

I'm going in the middle of July and I am just thrilled! I'll be there for a week and I am just so excited!

Well, that's all for now.  Perhaps I'll try to be better about blogging, but perhaps not.

:D

June Roses

Hello world!
Guess what this girl did yesterday!? Thats right, I ATTENDED MY LAST CLASS AS A FRESHMAN!!!!!!! WOOOT!

It was actually really epic because as I walked out of my class, it was pouring cats and dogs outside, and silly me didn't have a jacket or any thing, so I had to walk home in the pouring rain. I felt like Aragorn in The Twin Towers, when he comes comes back from almost being killed by those wolf thingies, and he opens the door all wet and dramatically...Except for I don't have a beard like he did...and I'm a girl..teehee ;)

I honestly never thought this day would come though. I've dreamed of it countless times, especially back in September at the beginning. But honestly, I've learned SO much these past 9 months, and I would not take back one single second, regardless of how hard or how difficult it's been. Don't get me wrong though, moving out was hard, and I really did miss high school at first, but now I feel like I could never go back to high school because College is just SO MUCH BETTER...for me, at this time in my life.

I've had so much fun this winter semester especially. I feel like I've sort of got a better grip on the whole college thing. I especially love the people I've had the opportunity to associate with. They are so great! And I know that If I'd gone to a different university I never would have had the opportunity to associate with such a unique and diverse group of talented people who all share the same core values as me. It really is amazing.

I'm actually really sad that my Freshman year is coming to an end. Isn't it interesting how I was sad to come, and now i'm even more sad that I have to leave? I've absolutely loved my ward. We've been really close, and I can honestly say that I know and love almost all of the people in my ward. They are just fanatastic people. People I will definitely never forget. I think there is a special bond that people get when they go through hard or new things together. My ward is a freshman ward, so many of us face very similar challenges, but it's been so great to support and be supported by others as we have each embarked on this new phase of life.

I think it was President Monson that has quoted in a few talkes, "Memories are the June roses for the Decembers of our lives." This past year and the people I've had the privlage to hang out with will definitely be apart of my "June Rose Memories," in the future.

Weird..

All of the outlets in my building are upside down. Why? Obviously it was a conscious decision by the construction workers/electicians because they are ALL upside down! At first it sort of drove me insane but now i kind of love it, and it makes way more sense. Man, transitioning back to right-side-up outlets is going to be such a pain! :p

In other news, Marissa has a pretty humiliating story.

So once upon a time, my professor decided that he wanted to assign his students to do a "close reading" on a particular piece of literature we would read in class. Well, I got assigned the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. So as I started writing said paper, I realized that I really didn't know what to write about, and it took me forever to write the dang thing. But alas, I did write it, and albeit it wasn't my best work, I was just so done with it so I didn't care. I turned in the paper and pretty much forgot about it.

Well, last night after class my professor said he wanted to meet with me. Whenever a professor tells you that, your stomach automatically does a few flip flops, and I began imaging worst-case scenarios as to why my professor needed to have a word with me. Well, turns out my worst-case scenario came true! Doesn't that just suck? He ended up telling me that I didn't do the assignment right, and that I needed to rewrite the whole thing.

Lets just say that I felt pretty dumb. Like, really dumb. I've never once in my life been so off on an assignment that my professor/teacher had to have me do it again. GAH!

But don't worry, this story has a somewhat happy ending, and that is that I just rewrote it and i'm finished with it!! (super happy eh?) I feel alot better about it, not great, but better, enough so that my professor hopefully won't have to have another little chat with me agian. Ugh, it was just uncomfortable for everybody involved I think.

But its all over now and in the past. DONE.

I just realized that on this silly little blog that I always talk about school and that I'm supposed to be in college partying and having crazy adventures. Well, I am having crazy adventures and partying, but so much of my life is school and work, so I guess thats what's on my mind. all. the. time.

On a happier note though, I'm coming home for the 3 day weekend! YAY!!!!!!!

Oh and also, I got a fall/winter contract with the Elms today! again, YAY!!!!

Catch up time

THe above picture is from a date i went on a few weeks ago. Fun times.
THis is must me perched on the counter top. Its sort of "my place" where I chill in the kitchen (probably because its right next to my cupboard of food?). Anyways this is just a cute little picture of me, Stacy, and Natalie after having helped our other roommates throw a little harry potter party.

This picture was against Gonzaga I believe? Regardlesss of who we played, we won! And it was such a fun game to go to! I love my amigos from HIgh school, they are just simply fantastic!

In other news, I am in the thick of mid terms. I'm really feeling the pressurre from having to juggle a job, school, studying, and social life. Some days it just seems like too much but it always ends up working out in the end. Last week i had two English midterms, which are super hard might I ad. It's not multiple choice sort of deal but all essays. Gosh darn those cursed essays! But I did it, and i"m feeling pretty decent about them (or maybe it's just relief that they are over??).

This week i've got the dreaded American Heritage test as well as a Living Prophets quiz and all sorts of good readings and assignments from other classes. Thats what kills me about midterms, you've got all these major tests and yet your professors still hand out homework and assignments like they're going out of style. *sigh.

Well, life really is is good. My heavenly father is so good to me. Every day there are little tender mercies that make everything O.K. Its the little things...

Happiness..

"Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you but on what happens
inside of you"

That little quote taped onto the bathroom mirror at home really has hit me hard lately. Yes, I'm not the most excited at the prospects of a new semester, new trials, new hardships. This semester is going to be a toughy what with the heavy reading load I have, as well as working 20 hours this semester. Its very easy to get down and frustrated with how busy/crazy/hard every day is.

HOWEVER, How can I choose not to be happy? I'm here at BYU getting an education that millions only dream of. I have a good job, and a good support system. Yes, sometimes its super hard, but there is always something to be happy about. Today, it was the fact that I got so much done. I'm HAPPY about that!

Well, thats all I've got to say at the moment. I hope you're looking forward to more wise words from Marissa haha

...And we're back

Christmas was fantastic, but alas, all good things must come to an end, so here I am back at college. The first day went pretty well. My 3 hour evening class was cancelled, so thats kind of a nice start to the semester i'd say. However, I can already feel the homework load piling up. Oh joy.


This should make for an interesting semester, involving loads of reading and writing, but hey, its all good; I'm going to grow and learn so much!

It really was such a fantastic christmas and I simply loved being with family and friends and having free time to do what I please. I'm grateful for that time of year because I get a chance to really celebrate my savior and all he has done for me, as well as spend time with the people I love most.


Happy New Year and best wishes in 2012!

WOW! I'm done with classes! YAY! For reals people, this thought makes me so happy! I honestly canot wait for christmas! Now all I have to do is make it through finals week.....ya. But, I can do this!

And just a little shout out to my wonderful friend and father, Stanford Charles Sainsbury. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! You're the best dad a girl could ask for!

Full of pie!

I hope you all had a wonderful family filled Thanksgiving! It was so nice to just get a break from school and worries and spend some quality time out on the farm. The best thing about it? Well, there were numerous things, but most importantly, the time I was able to just spend with family, relaxing and playing and eating pie!

I love thanksgiving because its a holiday where you give thanks for your blessings! I've been blessed with so much. To name a few things, I'm grateful for:

My heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ

My wonderful parents

My crazy siblings

The farm

The holidays

Chocolate

My education and the opportunity I have to get one

French Toast

BYU

Friends

Good roommates

my calling

Flowers

Scrambled eggs and cheese

Decorating

Sleep

The scriptures

journal writing

Cruncy leaves

the smell of christmas trees

lotion

New friends who accept you for who you are

and Old friends who will always be there for you

These are just a few things i'm grateful for. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! now...

BRING ON CHRISTMAS!!

It's almost time for PIE!!

Are you getting excited for pie!?!

Thanksgiving is only a week away!  Can i just tell you how much this fact makes me happy?!?! I'm SO ready for a break.  School is going well, but I definitely could use a few days off! (or to just catch up at least!)

Well, here's an update on my life:

I've got a job!!! Yup, I'm officially a travel secretary for OIT (office of Information Technology).  I book flights/conferences/hotels/rental cars for the executives and engineers for all of their conferences.  Its pretty cool.  These guys are in charge of all the computery stuff for BYU and also some of the church as well.  So ya, my job is pretty cool!  i've even got a desk and everything! It makes me very happy!  I feel like i've got a legit job, and I love it! (so far at least.  I mean, i've only been working there for 4 days, but so far so good!)

I only have one essay left for the entire semester! YAY!!!!  for reals, i'm so done.  its for my Writing 150 class, which PS: I absolutely hate!  My professor is so boring, and makes english seem sooooooooo boring.  If it werent for good english teachers in the past, I would seriously consider changing my major.  Plus the fact that it is at 8 in the morning doesn't help a whole lot.  8 O'clock is just a tad bit too early for this girl.

I did my laundry!  I actually really like doing laundry i've discovered.  I love having clean fresh clothing to wear!  I just have been postponing doing it because i've been so busy lately, but last night I finally did it while studying for SFL 210.  Unfortunately, I left all my clean clothes in my hamper, so thats waiting for me to fold and put away when I get home, but its all good.  Doing laundry actually acts as a destressor for me, so I really don't mind at all.

I watched the show Parenthood.  I really like this show alot.  It's got Lauren Graham (aka Lorelai Gilmore) and a bunch of other people in it, and I don't know why, but i just really enjoy it.  Its all about these 4 siblings who all have children and how they deal with being a parent and such.  I enjoy it at least.

Alrighty, well i'm going to go and do some more productive things!  I have thursdays off from work for the rest of the semester, so it's nice to have the afternoon off (somewhat. I do have a class at 1 and at 4...)

coloring...

Alrighty well i'm feeling pretty great about myself at this moment.  I basically just busted out a Great Works paper in about an hour.  For me, that's pretty good.  It usually takes me all afternoon to write a paper, and granted, this paper is shorter than most of those other papers, but still, i'm feeling pretty great! I can check that off my list of things to do which is just such a good feeling.  I feel like all of my professors collaborated together and decided to have all of our major assignments and tests and such at the same time! Its killing me!  But I've sort of scheduled out my time and i think i'll be just fine, i just can't let myself get distracted with things like...blogging haha

So last weekend was pretty fun! I went on a date with Tim on friday night, which actually went better than i thought it would.  It was my first real blind date, and I've heard the horror stories of blind dates, so i was a bit nervous, but it was a fun night!

And then on Saturday, we had the "adult session" of stake conference.  Can i just say that I've never been pounded more in the face about getting married then i did for those 2 hours?!  Geez, i'm only 18 for goodness sakes! It was good advice and such, but all things in moderation people!  Literally every speaker talked about marraige and dating and it got to be too much. It was good, just a bit much.

So after that meeting, me and my roomies went home and we just decided to have a low key evening and color pictures and listen to music.  It was great actually!




Yay for resorting back to our childhood and coloring! haha it actually was pretty fun believe it or not.

well my battery is about to die, so I guess thats all the update your gonna get! sucka! haha

:)

Fall FHE at the Farm :)

Such a great fall activity

This was seriously so much fun! All my roommates and FHE brothers came out to the house friday night. It was so funny to hear them talk about how much they loved the house and farm, and I couldn't help but agree with everythng they were saying. A bunch of them talked about how this was their "dream house". It really is my dream house, We've been so blessed and lucky to grow up in west mountain :)

This is me and a boy named Matt. We were paired up in the "pumpkin carving contest." We carved a cougar (originally it was a werewolf howling at the moon but we made the necessary adjustments haha) and i think it turned out pretty swell. I love carving pumpkins!

This is the whole gang. They are pretty great! It was such a fun time bringing the college friends home :)

Love you all

And so another week begins...

Well, its sunday night. I love the weekends can I just tell you!? But today was a great sunday! I went to two farewells, Dallin Gividens and Stuart Spencer's. They were just so awesome! Its crazy seeing these kids i've grown up with leave and go on missions! I'm not going to lie sometimes i wish i could go on a mission right now too!

Ward prayer is so awesome. It is like a huge production in my ward, and it is so fun! We have date-minute, and a skit, and funny room introductions, and mostly just hanging out with everyone. I really enjoy that alot. And the bishopbric is aweseome.

I am so excited for this week! Okay, well i only have one midterm, and i'm going to ace it just you wait! (well, hopefully!) The homework load isn't terrible this week, but don't worry i'll stay busy studying and such, but playing lots too!

On friday night, my roommates and our 6 FHE brothers are coming out to the farm and we are going to go on a hayride and carve pumpkins and eat caramel popcorn and just have a good halloween festive sort of a night. I can't wait!

and then saturday, the day of the murder mystery!!!!!! YAY!!! Jaime, if you have any ideas of how to dress up as a fashionable Witch from hufflepuff who is a fashionista, let me know! I cannot wait for saturday!

Then next sunday, 3 more farewells. These boys are just dropping like flies! But it's honestly so great. I love it!

Well, its super late, and i need to get my beauty sleep for tomorrow! Ugh, 8 oclock class is a drag!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

ramblings...

Here i am sitting in the deepest darkest corner of the library, waiting for my next class to start. Why not study you ask? well...I've got all my homework done and I frankly don't fee like studying for the sake of studying. I've been trying to get things done so that I can enjoy General Conference weekend with the Fam with minimial stressors. SO far so good! that is until tomorrow when my 4 professors give me another mountain of homework but i'd rather not think about that...

I'd rather think about happy things!!! for instance...

The water from the drinking fountain on the first floor of my apartment is amazing!! seriously, i don't know whats wrong with the water from the tap in my apartment but its always warm and it tastes like rocks. Seriously, there are so many minerals and metal flavored things in it. I miss my west mountain water, but the drinking fountain downstairs is an acceptable substitute in the meantime. Its cold and rreeeeffreshing!!

My roommate made no-bakes last night. DOn't worry, my apartment isn't "that" apartment that always is making cookies and is going to get fat (we've already pegged that room, its 1103 haha :D ) But really, I have decided that they are my new favorite cookie.

I LOVE the weather right now. BYU campus is so pretty. The flowers all look so great, and there is a crispness in the air right now, and the mountains are changing colors and its just lovely. I do wish i could spend more time outside rather than cooped up in the library, but i honestly can't get anything done outside because I get distracted way tooo easily.

Vampire Diaries. I. LOVE. IT. ITs the only TV i've watched in a month and its all i need! haha

*random side note: My FHE brother is sitting across from me at those little desk thinkins in the library. Its weird!! haha I NEVER see people in the library i know!

I get to go home for the weekend and watch general conference!! I've never looked forward to a general conference more! I love the idea of sleeping in (or at least past 7:30am) and just having a relaxing weekend complete with the traditional cinnamon rolls. hmm...maybe i'll decorate for fall while i'm down there!

*sad note: The pumpkins were a huge failure this year on the farm. I'm very very sad about this...its funny actually because the only pumpkins that are thriving are the ones that reseeded from last years awesome crop. Thus, we have two randomly placed pumpkin plants, one on the lane by the fence, and the other in the front flower bed. Gotta love it!

My ward makes me happy. I got blessed with the most awesome bishopbric. The Bishop's name is Bishop Sybrowski, and he is just awesome! He reminds me alot of Bisop Rasmussen, only he's 20 years younger. THe people in my ward are super fun too.

Well, i'm going to go to class now..Its english 195 and its pretty swell. Only 1 credit, and its a lecture course all about how awesome english majors are. THe only thing its taught me so far is that I am SO glad i'm going to be an english teacher because i like knowing that there is hopefully a job waiting for me once i get a degree....

Well, sorry this was about nothing in particular...

well i'm going to just take a moment and brag!!! and you can judge me i don't even care!! I"m SOOOOOOO happy because i got my paper back and i got a 58/60!!! which is a 96% in case you were wondering. It was for my human development class, and it was the hardest paper i've ever written, and i was super stressed but i guess all that worrying and working on it paid off! YAY!!

SO far i've been able to keep up on my studies. My first three exams i did pretty well in. 90% in music, 90% in physical science, and 93% in human development. Let's hope i can keep it up for midterms!

IN other news, my apartment has gotten into a sort of "milk war" with our FHE brothers. Basically we just keep doorbell ditching and pranking our "brothers". Its pretty immature and somewhat stupid but its super funny and i love it! Thats what college is all about right? right..

Well, I'm going to go study so more or at least try and find the motivation to study...bleh. Sometimes i spend hours in the deep corners of the library, and when i emerge into the fading sunlight, I feel like i'm crawling out of a black hole and back into civilization. no joke.

Warmest regards!!! :)

monday...

go to www.juliansmith.tv and search monday.

This is how i feel every monday morning...actually every mornin

anyways..

In my book of mormon class we are required to keep a daily journal about how the spirit has influenced us in our lives, or what we are grateful for. This hasn't been too difficult a task for me because i'm big on journal writing and such, but it has been very interesting. I love reflecting on my day and seeing how the lord has worked in my life. Especially just in the little things. I've been doing this for a month now, and was just reading through some of my entries, and i'm honestly so glad that i wrote them! Alot of my entries have been about how grateful i am for my awesome family, and that foundation that they have given me. I was thinking about this, and i realized that now that i've moved out, i feel like i'm not really up to date on what everyone else is doing in their lives, and they arent really up to date on mine. so an easy Solution? a blog! I mean, its not really perfect but its kinda fun-ish. I"ve always been a creepy blog stalker anyways, so i figure its time to contribute right? right :)

Well, i've got a music exam i'm taking tomorrow. I've got to go study for that now.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!