we do this thing together

My roommate Ashley is wonderful. I love her so much. I love them all so much. Ashley is a runner, and since we've been up here she's been trying to get me to run with her. I have been terrified to because I am a super slow poke, and that coupled with my wretched IT band problems have made me just crawl. But finally yesterday I caved and we had an AWESOME run. Running with Ashley pushes me to go harder and farther and faster. It's so great.

Tonight we went again, but unfortunately my knee was killing the entire time so we went a lot slower than yesterday. But going that slow made it so that we could go for longer, and it also gave us the chance to actually have a conversation which was so great. I love this girl, and I really like running with her!

When we got home it became an ice fest as I iced my knee and she iced her ankle.

And then I was dang hungry so I finished off my first box of cereal in college. I feel like it was a momentous occasion.

But then I think I iced my knee for a little too long because when I took it off it looked like this. And it was very numb and after a while it got really tingly...

Knee problems aside, I am sincerely hoping that this running thing becomes a routine.

we like living together.

Sometimes, as we are settling down for bed and I'm thinking great thoughts at my desk, Whitney looks over at me and starts laughing. Because I look like this:




I wish so much that a camera could fully capture the essense of this mass of hair that takes over everything after it has been curled, manipulated, bobby pinned, and eventually freed.

bless you friday

Thursdays are even harder than Tuesdays. I have the same 5 classes, plus a mentor group, plus a voice lesson. It makes for a long long day. But I can make it through Thursdays when I remember that the next day is Friday and it is the best day for oh so many reasons.

1. Only two classes

2. I am done at 12:30

3. Temple day. :)

4. I can get a good workout in

5. The party begins

6. With no sleep restrictions

7. Because it is the weekend.

Oh Friday. You are my best friend here. Besides Whitney. Speaking of which, please get better soon Whit, it makes me sad when you are sick.

some college thoughts.

So, I've only been here for two weeks and two days. It feels like forever--in a good way. It feels like "I can't believe I haven't been doing this all of my life" kind of.

I'm figuring out my routine, when I get my homework done, when I eat, when I sleep and such things.

You should be interested to know that Monday night I was in bed by 10:00. Last night I climbed in bed at 10:30. Why yes I am a winner.

I'm learning to get used to the learning model that they have here. The learning process is kind of different than I am used to, it's very much up to me as to how much I actually do. So I'm trying to do more than the bare mininum. I'm trying to get used to the whole "you teach yourself" thing. I'll get there.

I actually do miss my family a lot, especially my siblings (of course I miss you too mom and dad!). I have such an awesome family, I love them so much. I'm gonna go see them for conference weekend. :) That makes me happy.

But I'm not homesick. I'm having so much fun here, and while I miss my family, I know that if I was still living at home I would not be a pleasant person to be around because I have needed this change for so long.

It is such a blessing to be here. Have I mentioned that the spirit is EVERYWHERE? Every building is dedicated, prayers are offered before every class. The students are so great. I overheard this conversation the other day "I didn't even know her, but I was like 'dude, come on. This is BYU. You shouldn't be doing that.'" That felt cool to me, that I am surrounded by people who are living the standards of the gospel and who want others to live those standards as well.

Also, a new venture:

No more of this stuff. I've been doing pretty well in the healthy eating department since I've been up here. But I'm cutting treats back to only one day a week--which will probably be Sundays. Smoothies don't count as a treat. I eat those all the time. :) They are healthy right?

So. I'm doing really well. :) I like college.

this is what happens...

When a suprise party doesn't go as planned

So we play night games in the gardens

And ultimate spoons in the MC

And Ashley rolls her ankle

And we watch the perfect man in the lounge

And then go home

Where Whitney and I watch Friends on her bed til 3 a.m.

And then we wake up at 11:15

And realize that the day is practically halfway over.

I like this place a lot.

a post for my best friend on her birthday

Today is my best friend's birthday. I love her a lot. She was not so excited to celebrate her birthday up in Idaho right after moving in, so we as roommates tried to make it as good of a day as possible. So we woke her up at midnight and sang happy birthday to her, and hung up signs all over the place.

We took her out to dinner (to the crossroads hahaha) and suprised her with ice cream with a candle that we couldn't light. :) Then we took her to a movie at the cheapo movie theater and saw Despicable Me. "IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!!!"

We had such a blast. Oh we had so much fun. On the way home, Ashley found a cat.


Also there was a mysterious cake. We aren't sure where that came from.

Happy Birthday Whitney. I love you so much!

tuesdays

Tuesdays are crazy. I am not sure how it happened, but I have 5 classes on this day, plus devotional, plus a group mentor session. Here's how it goes.

9:00 basic musicianship

10:15 music explorations

11:30 book of mormon

12:45 science

2:00 devotional

3:15 women's choir

4:30 stupid group mentor meeting.

Don't even get me started.

On a happier note, I really like my roommate. :)

the big blow up slide

Happy news! I ordered a camera from amazon last night, it should be here in a few days. Then I won't have to wait for people to post their pictures on facebook! I'll be able to be the picture taker again!

So this is a post about I-night that took place last Wedesday night. It was basically this HUGE party that was spread all over campus. We started out in the courtyard outside the MC where there was a rock wall, bull riding simulator, big swing thing etc. Then a big old group of us went in search of laser tagging. We never really found it. Instead we played the pop the balloon game (which I dominated at), and then ended up in the gym with all the blow up toys. That big blow up slide just spoke to me. My roommate Ashley and I led the pack in taking over the slide. And we played on that thing forever. My shell burst WIDE open as I morphed into my 4-year-old self (which only really happens when I am with a certain sister...). Oh how fun it was.

Ashley and I going CRAZY down the slide.

That's me in the white. :)

We headed over to the dance for a little while, but it was not so fun seeing as the music was super quiet, and everyone was trying to get close to the speakers. We ended up in this huge mosh pit of people where you couldn't even move. So we moved to a different end of the football field and commenced in taking funny pictures. Huzzah for big groups of people you hardly know!

I definitely could not tell you the names of all the people in these pictures. I like them though!

I'm glad I look like something out of a horror movie.

I seriously love college so much. I know I keep saying it, but it is really so great. I love these people that I have only known for 6 days, I love the classes, I love everything. I am so happy here.

a post about my roommates. :)

From left to right: Ashley, Jayna, Andrea, Whitney, Amberly and Krista

One thing I was really concerned about when I thought about moving out and coming to college was my roommates. I was so worried about "would they be nice?" "would they be good girls?" "would they make it hard to live the gospel?" "will they hate me?" I would pray so hard that I would get good roommates and that we would all get a long.

Heavenly Father definitely blessed me when He put me with these girls. I've only known them for five days now, but I can honestly say that I love them. We are all from different places, but we get along so well and just love each other. We say a "family prayer" every single night which I love. We all love and live the gospel of Jesus Christ which makes it so easy. We eat dinner together whenever we can and we hang out together. These girls make me feel so good about myself. They knew about all of my auditions and were so encouraging and were so happy for me when I made women's choir and when I got into my auditioned class. I truly feel blessed to live with these girls and I'm so glad for the time we will get to spend together.

happy first day of classes!

Today has been pretty fantastic. It was the first day of classes, and I finally feel like i'm in college now. The whole orientation stuff was so helpful and good, but now that I'm jumping into to studying I'm just so happy. I went to three classes today, Basic Muscianship, Music Explorations and Book of Mormon. I think that the Basic Muscianship class will probably be pretty easy, it's all about "let's learn solfege" and stuff like that, but the ear training and dictation exercises will be very helpful. Music Explorations will just be a fun class to discover what options are out there. Book of Mormon is going to be great, I'm very excited for the studying aspect that will be required. I know that that class is definitely going to strengthen my testimony.

My last class of the day ended at 12:30 which I am a big fan of. :) Then I checked the call-back list for my bad choir audition and found out that I made the call back list! So we'll see if I get into women's choir, but at least I made it to that point!

What a happy happy day. What a great life I have. I can't even begin to explain what a blessing it is to go to this school. The spirit is EVERYWHERE. The atmosphere is so comfortable and peaceful and awesome. The people are incredibly friendly. Yesterday I was walking on campus and this random kid walked by me and pointed at me and said "hey". Everyone smiles when you make eye contact, I always feel like I can ask any person if I need help with anything. I love this place. Everything just feels RIGHT. Like the part of my life that was off is now on, I'm where I need to be.

As soon as the pictures get posted on facebook I will steal them and post about I-night. Oh heavens, it was a BLAST!

A little nightmarish...

Before I get into anything, let it be known that I am having a freaking blast here. I love all five of my roommates, I love the wonderful spirit that is here. I'm not a fan of all the being herded around, EFY stuff. Soon that will be done.

I have nightmares about being told I have to perform right before I have to do it. I am not a fan of performing, I'm not a soloist. Well, today I got to live my nightmare. I went to the snow building to do some serious rehearsing for my choir auditons tomorrow, and my other audition to get into a class I need. When we got down there everything was in a tussle, because the choir auditions were happening RIGHT THEN. So I got to rehearse for about 10 minutes and then off to this preliminary audition with a random student, then he sent us into the choir director for a private audition in her office! This is definitely a nightmare for me. I was so frazzled, and all over the place, I was so nervous and I wasn't focused or anything. It was terrible.

So, we will see I suppose.

I'm just very much looking forward to this awful not knowing anything stage to be over. It's all a little overwhelming right now but I'm sure it will be fine.

this is it.

Well. It's here. Tomorrow I am moving.
In 9 minutes I turn 19 years old.
A fact which is overshadowed by the fact that I am moving.
Tomorrow.
I'm so full of crazy emotions and at the same time I just feel kind of empty.
I can't even fathom the concept of moving out, and leaving.
And at the same time it's entirely bizzare to me that I am still here.
I have been ready for this for so long.
I don't think that anyone can understand how much I need this.
Here goes nothing...

your name may be amberly if...

You buy unnecessary yet terrific things like turquoise high heels, a nail buffing kit and 40$ face exfoliant.
You tend to act like you are 4 years old when you are around a certain sister.
You have desperately needed to go to college for a lot of months now.
You are still here, in your hometown, waiting to go to college.
You feel like a traitor to said hometown, your family and your bedroom for needing to go to college.
You are always willing to help a friend, be the shoulder to cry on, and be the one to give a hug.
You like to read classic novels.
You miss AP calculus.
You thrive on developing relationships.
You alternate between being addicted to Friends and Gilmore Girls.
You get emotional about super irrational things--namely, chocolate covered strawberries and smoothies.
You hate goodbyes.
You truly love your family.
You are going to miss them a lot while you are gone.
And you hope that there will still be a place for you when you come back.
You have had a pretty rough summer.
You are in your element when you are under pressure, learning hard concepts and working hard to complete assignments.
You have to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night.
You have had mono.
You are terrified of getting mono again.
You have plethora of "stress things" ie nail biting, eyelash pulling, cuticle picking, leg shaking.
You also crochet like a maniac.
You love giving gifts to the people you love.
If said gifts make them cry, you pretty much lose it.
You love the gospel of Jesus Christ with all of your heart. You know that Heavenly Father loves you without any doubt.
You are not getting married any time soon.
In fact, you are not going to be looking at boys for a while.
You have a problem with being too trusting, and sometimes you get hurt by that.
But you feel that it is better to be too trusting than not trusting enough.
You love the temple of the Lord and are excited to make covenants there.
Even though that won't be for a good while yet.
You desperately want to travel and see the world.
Your life ambition is to someday be in the Mo-Tab.
You'll start by eventually being in the BYU-singers.
Music is a passion for you.
You are excited for all the things in store and are ready to take the next step in life.

perspective shifts

Well. I made it through my 6 day babysitting job. I knew it was going to be hard, and it very much was. The kids were very cute and good for the most part, I just don't think I fully comprehended that being a mom is such a CONSTANT job. It doesn't stop, it doesn't end. There is no time for you except for after you get the kids in bed, and then that is the time I would clean the condo. A few of the things we did to stay occupied and entertained:

Watched a lot of Disney Movies
Played the wii
Went to McDonald's (where I was asked "is that your baby?" NO!!!)
Played at my house with my siblings (which was a HUGE blessing and gave me some relief)
Went to Discovery Park
Went to the Pool
Got ice cream at Macey's
Went to my home ward

The whole experience gave me such a different perspective about women and mothers. I've always had respect for motherhood but I have NEVER comprehended all that goes into being a mother. Everything does. You give up every part of yourself for your kids. It's amazing to me. I had a deadline, and end in sight, but when I am a mother, it will be for life.

It also gave me new respect for my mom and helped me understand why she has done the things that she has and also gratitude for the way I was raised. Dealing with tantrums all the time and trying to get past those made me wonder how to raise a child not to act like that, and I'm grateful that my parents raised me the way they did.

I'm glad that I got to do this, and especially that I got to do it right before I leave. It made me fully realize how much potential I have and all of the opportunites I get to take. Marriage and children are years away for me, and that is an exciting thought, because there is SO MUCH that I want to do and accomplish. Don't get me wrong, I will get married when the time is right regardless of what is going on, I'm planning on relying heavily on Heavenly Father to show me when that time is. But I'm just so glad that that time isn't right now. I'm so excited to see what college life has in store for me, and all the amazing things I am going to participate in. Less than one week now. So exciting. :)