Finals week festivities

It seemed like the end of the semester came and went before I could even blink.

It was a very busy two weeks, but in the sense that I had a lot of activities to attend, not that I had a lot of finals.

This was actually one of the easiest finals weeks I've ever had, and I definitely wasn't complaining!

It all started with a field trip to Utah with my Child and Family Advocacy class.

We went down on a day trip to visit with LDS Public Affairs as well as various representatives at the Utah State Capitol. 

It was also 7/11 that day, and not having any 7/11's in Rexburg, we had to make a stop (twice) in Utah to get free slurpees! 

A few days later my ward had our closing social. It was at our Bishop's dad's property in Saint Anthony. It was gorgeous. We did some canoeing, paddle boating, volleyball playing, and dutch oven eating :)

Then it came time to spend my last night all together with these lovely people pictured below.

We went to G's Dairy and had some delicious Reed's ice cream and then went back to our apartment for a couple cutthroat rounds of catchphrase, just like old times!

Then before I knew it, it was Grad Night!
I was asked to give the opening prayer, so this was my view...

That really made it set in that graduation was coming, and it was coming fast.

On the second to last day of my Child and Family Advocacy class we had a huge breakfast.

It was so much fun and I'm definitely going to miss that class!

I spent the weekend before finals and graduation busting my booty to get everything done for the rest of my undergraduate career!

It was an insanely busy and incredibly exhausting two days of over 12 hours working on homework, but it was so worth it. 

My family came into town on Sunday for my niece Caroline's baby blessing, so it was nice to have everything out of the way for some good quality family time.

(More on all of that to come soon!)

Needless to say, it was a very busy but very great last couple of weeks in Rexburg.
Now I'm moved home and not-so-patiently awaiting September 23rd, when I will be on a plane headed to Europe to study abroad for three and a half weeks!

Stay tuned for more about Caroline's blessing and my graduation!

And so it begins...

Today my department held the Grad Brunch for the graduating seniors in the Department of Home and Family.

This department includes culinary arts, so as you can imagine, the food was so good.
All of the department grads (that could make it) were there, as well as all of the teachers.

This cute, perky, funny, and always incredibly happy lady pictured above was my teacher when I took a cooking class a few semesters back!

She always made 7:45 classes so much fun :)

It really made it sink in that this is the beginning of the end.

Today started just under two weeks worth of graduation festivities, and I kind of can't believe it!

So here's to a crazy busy two weeks worth of grad fests, grad nights, grad parties, graduation speeches (I'm speaking at convocation... eek!), and finally, becoming a graduate!

Here goes nothing!

May 23: Lessons

Day 23: Things you've learned that school won't teach you

I've been skipping days (oops!).

Quite honestly some of the days just haven't been my cup of tea.

Combine that with being ridiculously swamped with school and trying to keep my head above water, and blogging is just simply not my number one priority.

So I'm going to make today easy.

Here ya have it, according to Pinterest:

This topic had a lot of potential for a rather insightful post, but I just quite frankly do not have the time.

Off to do homework while answering calls and appeasing needy clients.

Party!

Graduate

As of today I officially have my Associate's degree.

Now before you get all "congratulatory" on me, all it really means is that I have a paper stating I have an Associate of Science degree.

Technically I could have applied and received my Associate's one year ago.

I didn't even realize it was all official until I saw all of my friends posting about graduation today, and I thought, "oh, hey, I guess that means I officially have my Associate's degree. Party!"

And that was the end of the story.

I decided this semester to get it in paper just in case I wanted to transfer to University of Utah or BYU Provo get my Bachelor's degree, but I've decided to stick with BYU-Idaho because I'm already so far along into my major work.

So I'll be getting my Bachelor's degree July of 2014 from BYU-Idaho!

THEN we'll have something big to celebrate!

An accurate depiction of my level of excitement for the day ;)

I think I'll celebrate with a bowl of ice cream (which I do on a daily basis anyway...).

C'est la vie :)

Finals...

I'm not sure how I'm still breathing.

This has been quite possibly the most emotionally draining day of my life.

On top of that, I had to find a way to write a ten page paper.

I'm physically exhausted as well from pushing myself too far this week, having back problems, and spending too much time sitting in one place all day.

I don't know why I'm still awake. My bed is the only place I want to be right now.

Six more days and I. Am. Free.

I don't think I've ever hated finals week so much.

On a happy note, I get to spend Christmas in Colorado with niece and nephew.

Oh, how the thought of that just makes me smile :)

Finished

I did it.

I survived.

I'm DONE!

This week has taken its toll on me.

 

It's time to go grocery shopping (I haven't been in nearly three weeks) because I haven't had time and I've been living off of canned vegetables, chocolate covered raisins, toast with peanut butter, and instant mashed potatoes.

It's time I go buy real food.

 It's also time to go for a really, really, really good run.

 

And then, I think I'll spend the rest of the night watching Prison Break.

Maybe a movie, too.

 

Then, I'll sleep. A lot.

 

Oh, I'm so excited for seven whole weeks of classlessness and homeworklessness

(That's a mouth full..)

Bring it on.

 

Finals Survival Kit...

All I need to survive finals...

1. A giant bag of chocolate covered raisins

2. Sixlets

3. A lot of money to spend on dinners

4. Ibuprofen

5. A whole lot of Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Aaron Carter, Hilary Duff, and maybe even some Britney Spears.

Is it over yet?

P.S. You probably want to look at this --> http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/reasons-why-90s-boy-bands-were-the-best-boy-bands

 I couldn't stop laughing. 

I think finals are officially making me lose it.

P.P.S Watch this video. It'll make your day.

 

My Secrets to a Happy Day

Sometimes it takes a bad day, or week, or month, to really accentuate all of the great things you have in life.

When I have control of my life, just do things (even if I really don't want to), and focus on serving others rather than serving myself, I am so much happier.

These are the things that saved me from drowning yesterday:

1. Exercise. I can't even begin to describe how much running decreases my stress and brightens my mood. That alone makes my day go a million times better

2. I slept. A lot. I made myself find the time and took an hour long nap, and then last night I got 9 solid hours of sleep

(Thank you to my Child Development teacher for cancelling class!)

3. I started a (mostly) no-sugar diet yesterday. I'll be doing that until Thanksgiving, so nearly the entire month. I'm modeling it off of the picture that follows, but taking it a little further with no fruit snacks, granola bars, sugary cereals, and so on.

4. Thanks to Kathryn, I started my morning by thinking about things that I'm thankful for. We're going to put one thing a day that we're thankful for on our Facebooks :)

5. I began my morning doing service. I looked out the window this morning as I was doing dishes and noticed that some immature college kids had smashed a million pumpkins on the ground below our apartment, and it was a mess. Kathryn and I knew that Arden, our groundskeeper would have to clean it up, and we felt bad. So we took ten minutes to go outside and put all of the frozen pumpkin pieces into garbage bags and left a note for him.

(We couldn't carry them to the garbage because they'd break...)

Doing service really does put you in an incredible mood.

So no more slumps for me for a while.

I'm going to keep these five things in mind.

It might be the only thing that keeps me sane :)

This weekend has been great.

Friday consisted of a work party with the girls. We watched The Others :)

After that I watched BYU and the Rangers lose.

(that sucked, but I just love watching games, so oh well...)

Then I finished my Christmas wreath! I love getting crafty.

When I was done with that, I made Emily watch Friday The 13th with me.

On Saturday I spent the morning cleaning and doing homework

Frosting was my study buddy for the day.

I'm going on a no-sugar diet next week, so I have to get in all I can now :)

Then Emily and I went and babysat my niece, Sophie.

Followed by that, we spent the rest of our evening attempting to go to a dance party, failing, and then hanging out with our friend Jarom.

And now, this morning, I'm spending time reading this.

So far, this weekend has been a success :)

A Busy, Eventful, and Amazing Weekend

These are the reasons why...

1. My nephew was born!

See previous post :)

2. I didn't have any classes on Friday

3. I got a surprising amount of homework done

4. BYU v. Utah State

Riley Nelson saved the game.

Watch the fourth quarter - you won't regret it.

5. General Conference.

The two GC weekends twice a year are usually some of the best :)

I'm definitely not ready for another week to start.
Is the semester over yet?

News news news :)

First of all, I should probably share which classes I'm taking this semester.
(For my family's benefit, since they're the whole reason why I do this blog)

Child Development - LOVE it, but it is my major, after all :)
Family Studies - Required for my minor, and also super enjoyable.
Environmental Stewardship - Shoot me, I hate it.
The Middle East - Super interesting, but the homework load sucks, and my teacher is really hard. He has lived most of his life in the Middle East, so he tells great stories.
New Testament - Love it. Great teacher, great class.
Advanced Writing/Critical Thinking - Required for my foundations. We spend the whole semester working on like a 15 page research paper. I can deal :)

I have class all day, and then work every day until 5. I come home, do homework, hopefully make it to the gym, get 6-7 hours of sleep, lather, rinse and repeat.
Needless to say, I'm exhausted beyond belief, but I love every minute of it, besides science and middle east homework.

Now, in other news, I had to start a blog for my Family Studies class.
You can find it here.
It is completely religion based, and yes, I talk about my beliefs. It's for my class, and I really don't want to have to deal with offensive comments. So proceed with caution. I say that with as much love as possible :)

And now for the big news...
My parents are moving to Utah in about three weeks!
There are a number of reasons, but all that matters is that I'll be three hours away from home instead of thirteen.
I can't wait to go home for Thanksgiving, and maybe even just for no reason for a weekend or two!

Well, it's a Saturday night, and I have plans to attend to.
Ciao!

One Kind Soul

Yesterday I was in the Crossroads getting lunch.

I was in the line to check out and when I went to grab my wallet, I realized I didn't have it.

No problem, I just asked the lady to charge it to my school account.

Problem: You need photo i.d to do that.

Bigger problem: I didn't have my wallet, hence, no photo i.d.

As the lady and I were standing there in awkwardness, trying to figure out what to do, the gentleman behind me told the lady he would pay for my lunch.

I was stunned.

In a completely non-creepy, and quite gentlemanly way, he paid for my lunch, and when I asked what I could to do pay him back, he simply said nothing, told me to have a nice day, and walked away.

 

That might be the nicest random act of service anyone's ever done for me.

I wish he knew just how gracious and humbled I am.

Honestly, how many people would do that for a completely random stranger?

Swamped

Between random trips to Provo, the new semester starting, a boy, and trying to get at least six hours of sleep every night, I've been swamped for the past week.

Luckily, I've loved every minute of this crazy week.

It's going to be a great semester.

I can feel it.

Dear Boys,

You have it so easy and you don't even know.

Here's my case:

Boy likes girl.

Boy asks girl on date.

Girl knows that boy likes girl.

Girl likes boy.

Girl sits around waiting for boy to ask girl on date.

Boy doesn't know that girl likes boy.

This is the one reason that I wish I wasn't such an old fashioned girl.

Unfortunately, I like to do things the traditional way :)

Call Me Old Fashioned

Whatever happened to writing letters?

Why do I have to be so surprised when a car door gets opened for me?

I don't think I've ever had someone other than my father, or a waiter, pull my chair out for me before I sit down, though I would absolutely love it.

When a lady leaves a table, the men should stand up.

I love when I hear someone (men and women) say "ma'am" or "sir".

Maybe this is all too much to ask.

Sometimes I really do think chivalry is dead...

...and then someone does something to remind me that there's still hope.

She Means a Lot to Me

*Disclaimer....*
Please excuse my sappy-ness. I had a terrible head cold when I wrote this. Head colds make me sappy <--- Fun Fact.


Dear Haley,

Today is your birthday. You're no longer a teenager, woohoo! It's been three long weeks since I last laid my eyes on your pretty little face, woke up to you talking/doing weird things in your sleep, and had any Haley/Melissa moments. Thank goodness you will be gracing me with your presence in just three short days. I have missed you more than you know, and I can't wait to have four weeks just you and I! 

I am so eternally grateful (this is me getting serious now...) that I met you a year ago. I am so fortunate that you were placed in my life, and in that one year of friendship, I've found so many reasons why the big man upstairs needed us to be friends. In just one year we've created so many memories that will last a lifetime, and I know that we'll continue to make more.

I'm so thankful for your family who has taken me in and made me feel so welcome.

I'm so thankful for the example that you always set for me, no matter what.

I'm so thankful for how you're always so understanding whenever I get difficult, or upset with you.

I'm so thankful for what a sweet, caring, loving, honest, virtuous, and beautiful person you are.

I'm so thankful for the nights that you provide me with entertainment by talking to your alarm clock in your sleep (well, I'm thankful for the laughs in the morning, at least ;) )

I'm so thankful for our friendship, which I know will stay strong, no matter where life takes the both of us.

I just hope that life takes us to our front porch when we're eighty years old, singing to Lady GaGa with our white helmet hair and breaking various bones by trying to re-enact how we used to be able to dance.

I love you lots, Hay. You deserve to have a fabulous day.

Love,

Your BEFF,

Melissa

It's a Passion

Today I woke up, ate a hearty breakfast of banana bread that I made at midnight last night, and then got to cleaning.

 I spent just under four hours cleaning my apartment.

I cleaned every room (besides the other girls rooms...), washed the windows, and even cleaned out the refrigerator and freezer.

I don't know what it is...

Maybe it's that I can just zone out and focus on my music, usually Frank Sinatra or Adele radio on Pandora.

Maybe I'm a little OCD and I just love the feeling of making things clean.

I do know...

I was raised in a very clean household and since moving out, I've inherited my mother's traits of keeping a home clean.

I feel so much better about everything when I'm living in a clean space.

I'm excited for my parents and my older sister and her family to come visit and see me living in my apartment. Maybe that's what possessed me to spend an entire day cleaning.

It was a good day.

It made me happy.

Everything is clean.

Now we'll see how long it lasts...

My Kind of Day

8:00 - Good morning world!

9:30 - Interview at the Alumni Office. Best interview I've ever had, I kicked booty ;)

10:15 - Deep cleaning my apartment. This may or may not have included a little bit of dancing around and singing to Frank Sinatra radio on Pandora.

11:00 - Phase 1 of making Oreo Truffles

12:00 - Lunch time! I made a delicious turkey panini.

1:00 - Grocery store for some meal ingredients

2:00 - Phase 2 of making Oreo Truffles. This was the fun part :)

3:30 - Watched some t.v and painted my toes

4:30 - Got a call from the Alumni Office offering me the job!

5:00 - A visit to my sister and niece to drop off some treats and visit
6:00 - Home for dinner, and SYTYCD
7:00-9:00 - An amazing amazing amazing episode of SYTYCD!
7:30 - Tears streaming down my face because of Melanie Moore, my favorite from the beginning

Great day.

Wanted

1-3 female roommates.

MUST KNOW HOW TO:

Keep the apartment clean. This includes...

a) wiping down the counter after you flood it with water, crumbs and/or sticky things

b) Sweep the floor, especially if your idea of wiping down the counter is pushing your crumbs to the floor

c) do your dishes - clean them out and then put them in the dishwasher. If the washer is full, wash them out and wait until you (or another roommate) unload the clean dishes.

d) take out the trash - and then put another trash bag in the trash can (novel concept...)

e) put away your blow dryer/straightener/curling iron/towels/etc.

f) vacuum the floor on occasion

g) put away your food after using it and/or eating

Please no inquiries if you don't feel as though these are common courtesies.

I'll be especially interested if you can keep your room clean and free from growing weird smells.

On second thought,

I think it's time Kathryn Norman, Haley Adams, Emily Chandia and I invest in an apartment of our own.

five-oh-eight - spring semester

We finally had our roommate pictures taken.

Talk about last minute!

 Katelynn

 

Christina

Megan

Haley

Kathryn

Yours truly