midnight 5K

Last night Ashley and I ran a 5K that started at midnight. It was a costume party basically. It was really fun. I'm disappointed with my time because I tried to pace myself too well, that I held back the whole time...There were no mile markers or anything so I had no idea how much further I had. But it's cool. It was just fun to get out there and run it! I love working out and being healthy. It's such a great feeling. Thank you Ash, for getting me to do this!

Ashley after her awesome finish. She ran this in 24 and something minutes. I know right? She is such a rockstar.

Whitney said "make a power pose!" this is what I came up with. Yeah...? It's cool, I was happy to be finished. :)

full fridges make us feel fearful

This week has grown more and more desperate as we've consumed all of our food and no trips to the grocery store. Tonight I finally went and bought us some shtuff.

Filling up the fridge with grocerys seriously was the best feeling in the world. We had nothing. No bread, no milk, no yogurt, no apples, no goldfish. It was not ok.

Whitney was really happy about the easy mac I brought home to her. It has cool shaped noodles and everything.

Good thing we let ourselves run out of food before shopping...

masquerade

Saturday a bunch of us went to the masquerade ball. It was so fun to get all dressed up and make masks and look pretty. :)

what even is today?

Yesterday (Friday), was wonderful. I didn't have my 9:00 class because it had been an exam week. So I went to the Rexburg temple with my roommate Ashley. I thought that I would surely be back in time for my 11:30 class, but no. We were in the temple for over 3 hours and got out at 12:45. I felt that it wasn't a bad thing to miss my easy American Foundations class to go to something much better. :) It felt so great to be in the temple and sit and relax and think spiritual thoughts. The rest of my day was so fantastic. I just sat around, napped, went to the health center and was pronounced clean of TB, did some homework. Oh it fabulous.

Our ward had an activity planned that night, a costume party. So we got all festive and went. Yeah, it was pretty lame, very few people, no food etc. But we had a blast because we made it fun. We just did crazy awkward things and everyone wanted to be our friends because we clearly were having the most fun.

yup, this was as awkward as the picture portrays.

After gracing the party with our presense for about an hour and a half, we proceeded to walk all over campus in our costumes, taking strange pictures until my camera battery died. It was quite an adventure.Huzzah for Friday night's in Rexburg. 

music theory

I LOVE my music theory class. Thanks to AP music, I got to by pass the first three classes and get into musicianship 2. And I adore it.

I love analyzing a piece of music, and knowing the form, what and where the cadances are, if it modulates.

I love dictating. Hearing an excerpt of music and writing down the notes and rythmn. So exhilirating.

I love part writing. I love that there are rules that you have to follow and a formula to plug things into.

I love knowing the qualities of chords and how they resolve.

I love hearing any random two notes anywhere in the world and being able to say "Perfect 4th", "Minor 6th" etc.

I love the feeling that comes when I get my assignments back, listen to the groans behind me and examine my high score.

I love that I am a freshman in a class of second semester sophmores and I am leaving them in the dust.

I love the intricacies of music, the incredile complexity of it, the beautiful, recurring patterns, the math, the consistency of it.

Heavenly Father is amazing for creating something so wonderful as music.

oh good heavens.

If you know me,
you understand that
this was a big deal.

I was informed today, by a message that prevented me to log onto my student account, that if I had been out of the country, I needed to get a Tuberculosis skin test. Good thing I've been to Mexico. So, trooper that I am, I trooped up to the Student Health Center, where they proceeded to GIVE ME A SHOT that created a scary, bleeding BUMP on my arm that I'm not allowed to rub, scratch, or cover with a band aid. Oh good heavens, it was scary stuff. I am not ok with shots and such things. Although, be proud, I didn't faint.

Yuck.

i don't care, i'm doing a long post. with lots of pictures.

Yesterday was my very first choir concert in college. Whitney and I are in the Women's Choir up here which has been pretty fun. It's no where near the same experience as Chamber Choir was in high school. There are over a hundred girls in Women's and it's just different. It was also different going to a concert and knowing that we didn't have family there to support us. But the concerts went well, we did a good job. And our wonderful roommates came to support us. It made me so so happy. It was great having them there for us. :) I love them.



Me, Whitney and Scotty



When we got home, there was flour just chillin on a garbage sack, so we proceeded to make flour bombs out of old nylons and then had an epic war. It was spontaneous greatness. We were so caked in flour by the time the bombs were depleted. What fun in was. 

I'm not joking. We were covered.

The whole random group. See those two on the very left? We don't know them, they just joined in.

All of our adrenaline led to some seriously funny picture taking.

And jumping



This is my best friend Whitney. I love her.


I love when you think "oh, tonight's going to be kind of crappy, I'll go to my choir concert, watch a movie and go to bed." and then BAM! There's a flour war. It's cool. Good times. :)

dear cute science boy,

I would not object if you asked me out on a date.

love,
Amberly

a post about my mommy and daddy

I hate to admit that when I lived at home, I didn't give my parents enough credit for everything they do. Now that I live on my own, my appreciation for them has grown so much and I miss them a lot.

My Daddy: Me and my dad are a lot alike. We handle situations very similarly, we want people to treat us a certain way, we don't like to be left alone, we like to say sorry when we mess up, the list goes on. I love my dad so much. He has always been so great about setting a good example of what a righteous priesthood holder should be, and how the head of a family should be. He has so much respect for my mom which shows me how I want my future husband to treat me. I have never ever doubted his love for my mom, me and my siblings. He is an awesome provider, he always goes to work and has such a good attitude about it. I have never heard him complain about going to work. I got to work with him for three years off and on and it was so awesome. I loved seeing him at work all the time, it just made my day. I loved seeing him in his work environment and watching the way that people reacted to him and seeing what an indispensable employee he is. His co-workers have so much respect for him because he knows what he is talking about, and he is so genuinely nice to everyone. He is friendly to every person and he likes to joke around and find things in common. He has always encouraged me to be my very best self, he has always let me know when he is proud of me, he supports me in everything I do. He always found teaching opportunities and helped me grow into the person that I am. I love my daddy so much.

My Mommy: I have always had so much respect for my mom and tried to be like her. I have so many memories of how she raised me, and now I look at those memories as techniques that I will use for my own children. I'll be honest, we went through the typical teenage mother-daughter stage which I really regret now. But even though I was being moody and irritating, she did her best to give me space and wiggle room instead of coming down hard on me and stifling me. She always recognized that I needed my independence and she cultivated that in me. Something I love about her is that she was always teaching me to do things for myself, rather than just doing them for me. She gave me so many opportunities to learn and grow so that I can truly be independent. My mom is such a strong woman. She sets her mind on something and she devotes herself to it until she has gotten what she wants. She is so smart and she is always learning new things and challenging herself to become even better than she already is. She is so friendly and will go out of her way to make someone feel comfortable. She is a wonderful mother, teacher and friend. She has helped me become the person I am today and I love her for everything she has done for me and my family.

My parents are so incredible. I wish that everyone was as lucky as I am. They both, together, raised me into this person that I am now. And I have flaws and I make mistakes, but fortunately they have also fostered in me a deep love for the gospel of Jesus Christ and shown me what to do when I mess up, and taught me how to be a disciple of Christ. I am eternally grateful that they raised me the way that they did. I am so glad that they taught me to be self-sufficient and didn't coddle me. I'm glad that they let me make messes and taught me how to clean up after myself. I'm grateful that they love each other. The love that they have for each other is what I look forward to in my own future. I think that if I can find a fraction of what they have, I will be so happy. They are going to make such wonderful grandparents, I am so excited for my children to learn from them and be taught by them, as I have been.

I miss my family every day, but I have been prepared to live on my own by my wonderful parents who saw that it is necessary. They have given me the tools that I needed to be here, being my own person and loving where I'm at. I have so much love and appreciation for them and I'm so lucky to have them in my life.

on a sunday...

I very much love Sundays here. I love having church at 1:30. We sleep in for long amounts of hours, and then get all cutsie and go to our singles ward. I love the ward, I love relief society, I love my calling. I love going with my roommates and friends. It is so fantastic.

After church, we sometimes hang out in our living room and be silly. And take a bunch of random pictures of ourselves, and Ashley's fish. :)



Whitney likes her Mike Mug.



We like each other.





Ashley really loves her fish





We eat donuts sometimes



We decorated our door for Halloween. It looks fantastic. Yes, we are aware.

bouncing around my recollection

"Maybe I'll push him down a hill and he'll get anmesia!"

"Should I shower before I go hang out with that kid?"
"Do you want him to be attracted to you?"
".....no."
"Then don't shower."

"Well, I'm just making this up now so we're going to move on."

"Joey, Jo is a girl. It's short for Josephine."
"Oh, it's a girl on girl thing!"
"Why would you think that?"
"Well, Jo has a crush on Laurie."

"Trevor!!! We were just talking about a crazy rapist attacking us! I am going to kill you!"

"Wife, hold my keys."
"When did I become your wife?"
"I don't know where that came from, it just fit the situation so well."


"I want that chocolate."
"No you don't! You want a cough drop!"


"It was one of those awkward 'I don't know if he saw me' moments, but then he touched me and now I'm like 'EEEEEEEEE' :):):)"


"It's time for my Green Eggs and Ham discussion group. Today it's 'why he would not eat them on a train.'"


"Uh, we have a problem. You are texting my girlfriend and it's making her really uncomfortable."

"If that's a dried plum, what is a prune?"
"A dried plum."

"Do you know a guy named John Z?"
"Kristen, your husband is so dumb!"

"Sometimes I eat the cough drops because I think they taste good."

"Don't worry, I won't marry you yet."

"My fishy is in the pumpkin!"

"What is that thing?"
"You wish you knew."

scarfy.

There is this kid, who is known by a plethora of less than nice names. We call him Scarfy, or Scarf Boy, we have also heard him referred to as Molester Matt. This kid hand raped my roommate Andrea--aka he grabbed her hand and would not let her go. No, he did not know her.

We are fairly certain that I had my first encounter with him today. Here's how it went:

I was walking home from the testing center (where I had gotten a 95% on my first American Foundations test. Holla!) when from behind me I heard
"Hey, how are you?" Knowing the social rules as I do, I felt that I could not be the person being addressed, until a kid pulled up beside me on a bicycle and again said
"Hey, how are you?" I responded with a friendly hello, wondering why this guy was talking to me. He kept up a steady stream of conversation which I found slightly amusing.
He asked me where I was going and I told him I was going home. He asked me where that was, which is when I started feeling a bit uncomfortable. When I told him I lived in the dorms he said "You're a freshman? No bloody way!" I assured him that I was a freshman, and thanked my lucky stars that I was almost home.
As our paths were seperating he called out "Are you kind of in a hurry right now?" I had a feeling where this was going so even though I had nothing going on the rest of the night, I told him I was busy. Then he said "Can I have your number and we can hang out later?" I just said "No. I'm sorry." He tried again to get me to give him my number and I just said no and walked faster away. I was terrified that he would follow me, but thankfully he didn't.

In discussing the story with some of my roommates after the incident, we put the pieces together and are fairly certain that this was Molester Matt. Good thing I follow my intuition.

Not everyone at BYU-Idaho is fantastic and nice.

first trip home

This weekend I got to go home for conference weekend. It's the first time I had been home for a whole month. It was so bizarre that it felt like I had never left.

I didn't do my laundry for two and half weeks in anticipation of going home--I just went to Wal-Mart when I ran out of clean underwear and bought more. :) I had quite the load...
It was so great to see my family again. Being away from them has given me such an appreciation of them.

I got to see a few of my high school friends between sessions of conference on Saturday. I didn't take any pictures though... sorry...

Mostly I just hung out with these guys. :) On Saturday I got to go to my darling friend Kristen's baby shower. I grew up with this girl, I love her so much and now she is having a baby! So crazy.

On Sunday we went to Grandma's and got to watch conference. My roommate Ashley came to Grandma's too and then went back to Idaho with my cousins and I. It was so fun having her come meet my family and watch conference together...even if we did sleep a little... ;)

It was a really short trip, and like I said, it felt so weird to be home. Just that it felt like I hadn't even been gone. It was a little disconcerting. And now I am at my home in Rexburg again which also just feels strange. Back to classes tomorrow. :P