Tender Mercies and Other Miracles

I haven't had a whole lot of time to write lately but I thought I'd better write some of the little tender mercies as well as big miracles I've had in my life lately.

• I missed a large chemistry quiz- after majorly stressing out I found out that one quiz score is dropped so missing one won't effect my grade at all.
• I thought I was going to have to pay $100 for a prescription because I hadn't read the fine print on the rebate well enough- I called the Doctor's office and they promised to get it all sorted out for me
• I have a huge new group of friends, most of whom are in my student ward, who are all great people and I love all of the crazy stuff we do together (snowball fights, nickel city, dollar movies, hot tubbing, dance parties, game night, mafia and more)

• I have awesome parents! I have a mom who takes the time to help me edit college papers, give me cooking & shopping advice, and talk to me on the phone everyday. And I have a dad who takes care of things I don't know how to do like buying computer ink online, he gives me father's blessings whenever I ask, and now that he has texting he's always sending me cute texts that give me a boost even if all they say is "hey how's your day going or whazz up? :)"
• And lastly, the biggest one of all has to do with one of my very best friends Whitni Gardner, who is currently attending Utah State. She has been taking the missionary discussions and has recently decided that SHE WANTS TO GET BAPTIZED!!! If you can't tell I'm a bit excited. The date is set for November 20 and I could not be more happy right now. I love her so much and I'm so glad she has accepted the gospel, I know it will change her life.

So even though college can be rough and certainly contains its own little trials, I know I'm very blessed. I am so grateful to be here at BYU, to have such amazing friends and family, and most of all to have the gospel in my life. :)

Halloween at Home: pumpkins, caramel apples, and mandarin spicy chicken :)

Idaho Falls and Provo are the perfect distance away. I get to experience truly living away from home while at the same time it's close enough for me to make a monthly visit. Although a little early, this weekend trip was Halloween themed and it was awesome. When I first got home everyone was already across the street at Sunnyside elementary school's Halloween carnival. My mom was in charge of a booth so I helped her for a bit and also got to see all my little siblings decked out in costumes. Some how I ended up with no pictures of that but Nathan was from Grease, Spencer was a football player, and Michelle was an adorable little witch decked out with a green face and everything. After the carnival we all headed home to watch the new Karate Kid movie. It's been a long time since our last family movie night, I loved it.

Although I neglected to get pictures of the costumes I did remember to take some of the decorations. Mom and the kids went all out before I got home and there are cute decorations all over the house. The one that creeped me out the most was the portrait of the vampire hanging where our picture of the prophet usually does, lets just say I did a very big double take when I first saw it.

Saturday morning I woke up early and went running. Then while everyone was off doing their seperate activities like sports or dance practice, I wrote my application paper for Book of Mormon. Then once everyone got back together it was time for pumpkin carving!

Look at all the beautiful pumpkins, they're kinda hard to see but there's a Nathan's scary face, Melanie's witch, Spencer's bat, and my skeleton pirate. (Michelle's cat was still being carved in the kitchen)

Here's a close up of my pirate, I decided it was a pretty decent Captain Jack Sparrow look alike :)

And now for the lit up versions...

After pumpkins it was time for making carmel dipped apples, my favorite! We had to dip them super fast before the caramel hardened so some of them turned out a little messy, but they were delicious. My favorite was the coconut with both white and milk chocolate chips, mmm so good. Mom even let me wrap two up and bring them back to college with me.

When all of our Halloween festivities were over my Mom and I took off to eat dinner at my favorite local  chinese restaurant, The Great Hunan. Wow have I missed that place, they have the most amazing mandarin spicy chicken ever! We had a great time and I loved being able to catch up in person. My mom has definitely become one of my best friends, some how even more so after leaving for college, and I love it :)

Sunday morning I got to attend my home ward and see my little brother Nathan ordained to the Aaronic priesthood. I can't believe he's old enough to pass the sacrament now, kinda crazy. Soon after, I was back on the road and headed back to Provo. It was a great weekend though and definitely helped rejuvenate me to face the second half the semester.

Homecoming...Gangsta style

This week was BYU homecoming, honestly some parts of it felt too reminiscent of high school for me but overall I ended up having a lot of fun. On Friday night my roommates had dates to the dance and I didn't so Brock and I decided to go thuggin' around Provo. We went to a bunch of places like the mall, Walmart, and the cocoa bean cupcake place, playing gangster music with our windows down the whole way haha we got some great looks. Then because we ran out of things to do we decided to stop by the outer-space themed homecoming dance my roommates were at. We didn't exactly blend in but we had a blast.

On Saturday I hung out with my roommates and Kenzie all day. We went shopping at Kohls and Plato's closet (the best place ever) and found some great deals, including the most incredible shoes which are shown in the picture below. We had a pizza picnic and then headed to the football game. Keeping with the gangster theme, and because they liked my awesome pink pants, Alysa and Kenzie bought colored pants as well and we all headed to the game decked out.

We felt a little discriminated against at the game as we were some of the only students they requested to see our IDs haha. It was all made up for though when the camera zoomed in on us three and we were on the jumbo screen for a long time, at least 30 seconds. We danced and went crazy, it was pretty awesome. Afterwards we had a bunch of people we know texting us because they saw it and liked our sweet outfits. Oh and we finally won another game, which was also exciting :)

Saturday night however strayed from the rest of the weekend's theme. Brock had previously asked me to the semi-formal dance but since we had ended up at the outer-space dance the night before we decided to do something else. We dressed up real classy like and then drove up to Salt Lake. We ate dinner at the Macaroni Grill which was delicious and had a great atmosphere that added to the night's overall feeling of classiness. Then we headed over to Temple Square and enjoyed the temple and all the other beautiful buildings there. It was fun since we both hadn't been there in quite awhile. Anyway the night was a great success and it was definitely fun to get out of Provo and enjoy the big city.

The beginning of my last year as a teen...

I'm officially 19! It sounds so old but I don't feel any different from when I turned 18 or even 17. I have to say though, for a first birthday away from home it turned out to be pretty great.

Part 1: My parents got into town the night before and we went to In and Out before I headed back to my apartment to study for my midterm. Wednesday morning I took my 5th test of the past 5 days, which was perfect because then I could spend the rest of the day stress free.  My parents took me back to their hotel where we ate breakfast before dropping my dad off at the Wilkinson Center for the BYU career fair. While he was busy recruiting, I went to classes as well as spent some quality bonding time with my mom. We sat on a bench in front of the Wilk for almost two hours just catching up and talking, a little surprising we still had so much to say considering I call her so often. After my last class we headed out to the Mall and Sams to do some shopping. Then came the part I'd been really looking forward to... Tucanos! Wow that place is amazing, thank you daddy :) I especially loved the grilled pineapple and really enjoyed the overall atmosphere of the place. I think my parents got a kick out of when the waiters made me stand up and dance to their singing in order to earn a complimentary birthday dessert haha and I don't blame them, but it was worth it even though I was already stuffed. (I'm so upset I don't have any pictures)

Part 2: When I got back to my dorm I found a surprise party waiting. My roommate Alysa had pulled it together on pretty short notice. They definitely surprised me though and it turned out to be way fun, with lots of people there. Here's a few of the birthday activities...

• Brownies with trick candles, I totally fell for them too when they burst back into flame haha I haven't seen those in years
• Pin the mustache on Justin Bieber
• "Smurf"
• Other outdoor games

I had a blast and was grateful for my roommate's initiative to get it all together. Once again I forgot to get any pictures actually during the party but I did capture some of the awesome decorations afterwards.

I didn't realize how much I looked like Dakota Fanning when I was little...

 One of the guys in my FHE group drew me this picture in honor of my birthday. I love how he signed it "your son" is saying "yay mom," haha they pretty much all refer to me as that now.