Interesting Happenings

      I approached this week of finals a little different than I ever have before.  I had a final in every class, but most of them were schedule this time.  Maybe it was my mastery of my classes, or maybe it was my jaded upperclassmen attitude, but I didn't stress as much about my finals -- although I did feel the pressure of trying to get everything done and working more hours (22 total) than I ever have before during finals week! Despite this I had a great week and I'll use this post to report some of the more exciting events, since the verdict on finals is still out!

So on Tuesday night, I had a final that consisted of a presentation and turning in a paper.  My professor who has been a joy and trial all semester long told us that it would be a great time and that she would be bringing some food.  We assumed by food she meant a batch of cookies.  However Sister Petrie meant it when she said she would bring food! She walked in with a few bags, which I didn't think much of. Then she pulled out the table cloth. We knew she meant business! Ha ha.. Many people pulled out their phones, it was just too funny. She was like a walking Relief Society -- relieving the poor in sleep. :)  

Getting the feast ready

The food.....

After I realized I wouldn't be able to finish all my finals in time to leave with my best friends on Thursday morning, I decided to take time to recreate. So Sarah and I used a buy-one-get-one-free coupon at the Creamery. My ward gave us the coupons as an encouragement to date.. so I went on a girl date with Sarah! It was a great way to relax so I could refocus and study for Susan's class (my last and one of the most difficult finals).  On the way there Miss Sarah Jones wore a backpack! This is the first time I have EVER seen Sarah in a backpack - despite knowing her for the entire summer and seeing her weekly (although never on campus).  She's a satchel/purse girl through and through so I took the time to document this momentous occasion.  

Miss Sarah Jones

Sarah is great friend and I was glad to have a chance to see her before we left for the break!

I can't remember what day this happened but it was one of the eventful parts of finals none the less! I walked into work and one of my coworkers gave me this box of chocolates.  My coworkers in general aren't the gift giving type, so this was quite the surprise! I thought it was so fun! He had little mini boxes of chocolates for everyone all decorated in this cute way! How festive! 

Just to clarity the size- it held 3 delicious chocolates

After traveling home on Sunday, I have been enjoying the comforts of home.  My one goal in coming home was trying to remain productive and fight off idleness, but as I write this blog post while watching my North and South on Netflix while Ty enjoys his own BBC series... it seems this might be challenge! 

Blessings of going to school with Ty..

 Ty and me! 

       Of the many great things about going to school at the same time with your older brother, one of the greatest is that when he tells you where he's studying at, and you stalk him down, and you can't focus on studying because he chose one of the only places on campus that has oldies music blaring constantly -- he doesn't ever get angry at you for starting conversations every 5 minutes.  -- Hopefully I'll stop annoying him and start studying soon, because this final is TODAY!

Reading Days

So readers -- Reading Days has arrived, meaning finals start Monday. I've got a lot to do before I go home, including four tests, 1 paper, 1 presentation, 1 cleaning check, and 13.5 hours of work. So I've tried really hard to be productive today. I thought I did pretty well. I got up at 8 and have been working on a study guide all morning! Then just when I was doing so well my roommate showed me this video:

And productivity went out the window. It was sweet! I have never been one to cry during movies, until last year in my accessible recreation class where we watched tons of short clips on inspiring people.  Now I amend my never crying in movies statement to I only cry during inspirational Youtube clips.  Anyway.. this clip brought joy into my soul and led me to this clip

which brought tears to my eyes.  I suggest if you ever need a pick me up, head over to this blog which is also very great and inspirational! 

I couldn't resist...

I know I said I didn't want to post a picture, but it's just too cute not to share!

Stacey and I sat in front of this for a half hour -- just enjoying the scenery. 

The stockings should be up on the mantle soon! :)

Christmas Is Coming!

I wish that I had a camera to capture my magical Christmas living room, but at the same time I know a camera would make all of our hard work look cheesy and very college cheap. BUT despite what a picture would do to it -- if you were sitting here on my couch next me it would be perfect for you as well. I'll try to describe it for you!

Our little two foot Christmas tree is aglow in the corner. Its got the cutest bulbs on it -- little spheres of silver, matte red, and shiny red! My roommate Tess added a troll tree topper and some other ornaments. We put two strings of multi-color lights around the top of three-ish walls. The extension cord is hanging down from the lights awkwardly against the wall. There is a string of tinsel around the lamp! And I'm listening to pop-stars sing carols in a really really corny way! I love it!

Stacey, Amanda, and I are going to finish the rest of our decorating later tonight! We're making a Christmas mural (basically we're painting butcher paper to look like a fireplace with a fire in it), and we're going to wrap our door and put a giant bow on it! I'm so excited for this Christmas season!

You can always feel a special spirit all over the place during Christmas. We had this great lesson on charity at FHE last night and I just feel so inspired by all my FHE members! I'm just going to go start serving everyone in sight! :) Then tonight my home teachers came over to move our furniture to make room for our Christmas mural! It was so sweet of them! So I guess the lesson learned is that even though I complain about this ward a lot -- it isn't the worst place after all!

I just have to make it through these last few weeks of tests and and projects and I'll be home free!! Christmas-time is the BEST TIME OF THE YEAR!

Materialistic Things to Be Thankful For!

 MY COMPUTER IS FIXED! 

AND PRACTICALLY BRAND NEW!

So two weeks ago(ish) after I cleaned my computer with a Clorox Bleach Wipe -- the keyboard started acting funny. As in certain keys would only work if the caps lock was on, or when I would push one button three letters would show up. It was bizarre. Being the computer support secretary I am I Googled the problem. Apparently I needed to shut everything down and let it air out for a day or two. I did this on a Thursday night .... It was still dead Monday morning. So being the computer support secretary I am I took it to work gave it to my boss and said -- can you fix this?

Then the wait started. For weeks my blessed roommate Stacey McKnight has been selflessly sharing her computer with me -- FREE OF CHARGE! Then today, the Apple Man FINALLY CAME!

After tinkering for a while he discovered that there was NO WATER DAMAGE (which is a HUGE blessing because my Applecare does not cover spills). 

(Although I still secretly think that's what the problem is -- the way they detect water spills as I understand it is that there are stickers under the keyboard that change something when they are wet -- so thankfully my Clorox drops missed those indicators!)

The Apple Man than found that my computer's power button was broken, so he's ordering parts. For the time being he did something to make it turn on again until the parts come in. My job is to not let it turn off or run out of juice until after the new parts come in, because it's going to die again if that happens. 

So here's all that I'm grateful for day (in relation to my laptop):

1.) That my roommate is so sweet and kind enough to share with me.

2.) That my computer is running again and will be fixed completely soon.

3.) That my the Apple Man noticed the cracks at the hinge of my computer and replaced the outer covering.

4.) That my screen finally got cleaned -- It's been needing that for a long time actually and there was this spot on my screen that was lighter than everything else -- that's gone now too!

5.) It turns out that the power key is connected to the keyboard, so when I get a new power button I GET A WHOLE NEW KEYBOARD, which isn't that big of a deal since my keyboard is working properly now but it's still exciting because I get something new! YEAH!

So that's my materialistic blessings for today! 

Best Friends Weekend

So my computer has recently decided to take a sabbatical. Meaning that for the time being it is out of commission. Gone. Crashed. Done. Dead.  It's like the all the opposition of the blogging world is conspiring against me .. first my camera, then my computer.. what's next? Awesome life experiences to blog about? (knock on wood that's not next-- my life is already pretty boring if my life experiences get anymore boring I'll be in jail or dead.) But despite this, I'm going to try to fight back and blog from work for a little while ... So here's my belated post on my

BEST FRIEND'S WEEKEND IN ST. GEORGE!

The weekend was so much fun. We got there on Friday and although I don't have pictures of it at the moment.... We dyed hair, had a very interesting talent show, and loved being together! It was a blast!

The next day we made a list of 13 things we could do in St. George. We decided to go to the 'mall' of St. George! It was so much fun. Instead of shopping for ourselves we decided to have a gift exchange. We all drew a name and then we all went shopping together for a while. Then we split up and had 20 minutes to buy gifts for each other. SO MUCH FUN! I really enjoyed that part of the day. Then we went to the grocery store for dessert supplies. Then we went out to dinner, sticking to tradition we went to  Chili's -- we ate in the bar part of the restaurant -- most likely because our server could tell Alexa was on the verge of being 21! 

We came home after our delicious dinner experience -- and played drinking games with shot glasses and root (pronounced rut) beer! So fun! But... just so you carbonation is actually pretty filling, even drinking it a shot glass at a time! :)

The Group - minus Chelsea!

The Group plus Chelsea! 

 After our stomachs settled back down we had brownies and gluten-free mousse as an early celebration of the beautiful amazing Alexa!

Isn't she great!?

We then watched movies till all hours of the morning and had a wonderful time with that as well.. The next morning we were off to a great Church meeting! We left Church after sacrament meeting to eat before we headed back home and we used the time to take some group photos --- photography skills on these ones go to Miss Stacey McKnight!

FAB FOUR REUNITED! :)

Chelsea's the tallest! 

Jumping for Joy?

We love Edward!

I love these girls so much and I'm so glad we got to go through high school together. We were good for each other and it turns out in college you need the same kinds of friends. Even though we don't get to see each other that much -- it always feels like nothing has changed between the four of us. What a blessing! I'm especially glad to celebrate a whole holiday weekend about on my best friends ALEXA! She is such a great girl --  so sincere, non-judgemental, adventurous, fun-loving, and genuinely caring. She's a blessing to me all by herself! I'm so glad I got to go down and relax before all of this school stuff starts getting really intense and there was no better way to spend my weekend! :)