When will the Tests stop?

(Sorry it took so long for this one to be up!)

Before I go into the week, Grandma Lambert pointed out that my classes didn't make the list of things I love! But I really am enjoying them... some more than others! My favorites are probably my Classics of Western Literature, Institute, and my new class that started this week called Information Literacy! I really enjoy that one!

I was just looking back at some of my blog posts, and I realized that I have had some pretty great times!!! That is a good thing to remember on a week when everyone seems to be stressed. We have been here a few days over 2 months!!! Its crazy! But that means that we have been going straight for over 70 days with no signs of stopping. You can tell around campus that everyone is slowly dying.
On Sunday we had a hall meeting with our amazing RA and RA.5 Merissa and Sadie. I just love them, and wish I could be them! They are truly the best! I was assigned to talk about Self Respect with relation to our Code of Honor. I pulled it together real quick but it was a very cool topic and led me to some very awesome talks on self respect on lds.org. I then came back to work on an essay that was due that was so frustrating! Let's not talk about it!

Monday I had FHE. My "mom" couldn't be there, so my "dad", was put in charge and somehow another group (Ewa's) just joined us. He taught a quick lesson about listening to the spirit. We played a game where one person was in the middle and everyone moves. The person in the middle points to someone and says "Make the noise of...". He or She then has to guess the person that made the noise. I tried to dodge getting picked, but it failed! I had to make the noise of a car, dolphin, otter? (I got out of that one. What the heck do otters sound like!? Those were the ones I can remember. After that we had our Monday FaceTime Alley. Then Sam and I got talking about about Arthur. So what did we stay up and do? Watch the musical episode! It was great!

Tuesday I had work. It was slow but Ewa and I got to work in the "bridge". Its a secluded off the main room. We got distracted sometimes..... It was just so slow!

Wednesday I had a Math and Astronomy test. My math one was all story problems. Only about 3 or 4 people finished during class. She had us turn them in anyway. She graded them and passed them back to us on Friday with an opportunity to rework and finish problems for 80% credit added on to what we got. I got an 85 before I reworked it! So it will just go up :)
Astronomy was okay. A group of us got together and studied in Jonzzey's right before. We had people coming in and out but we tried to go over things people didn't understand. I felt pretty good about it, but I know there were a few questions I really didn't know the answer to! It was a beautiful day walking back from the test though.

Thursday I drove Rebecca to her appointment in Fisherville. We came back and went to dinner. Afterword I wanted to play in the leaves. So we did! Then we ended up laying on this big pile for an hour! A few people came and went but Anna, Ewa, and I stayed there till the sun went down and it got really cold! It was soo relaxing. I didn't want to move!

Friday we had forum. We had an old football player (who played at BYU and professional) come speak. He gave an amazing talk on service and missionary work! It was super cool! After classes, we heard that there was a movie marathon of Halloween Town. Those movies are awesome! Ewa and Anna and I went out into the lobby of the Lofts and watched the end of the second one. Anna and I then went to dinner and then to an event called Art after Dark. This is put on my our literary book called The Review. People submit pieces of art for everyone to admire, and then there is a poetry and short story reading. You could buy treats and all the money wen't to The Review. It was fun! We then had a concert from a guy named Mimi Knowles. He won battle of the bands (the same one Imagine Dragons has won). He is pretty good, it was just a weird thing! One of the bands on campus played before and they were really good. Ewa ditched me half way through, so I just found some people to hang out with. I then came back to my room and was alone because Sam was on a little vacation with the lacrosse team. So I watched a movie till two in the morning!

Saturday I worked and then ate dinner. We then had stake conference. At forum I was stopped and asked by someone in the stake to give the opening prayer. So I did that! The whole session was really good! It was focused on remembering the Lord loves all of us.

It has been a very stressful week, and I just want everything to freeze! But I am so grateful for the amazing place I live! I love the people that are here, and all the exciting things that happen!

11 Reasons why I love my school!

1. Really cool activities go on around campus. On Sunday and Monday we went and listened to the Nashville Tribute Band who came to preform. They make a lot of albums for the church including one's about Joseph Smith, trek, and missionary work. In fact a ton of missionaries listen to their songs! My favorite part of both nights was when the missionaries got to go up and sing with them the songs about missionary work! It was so cool!

2. We take days off, so no classes are going on, to go to the temple! YES! Tuesday our school piled in cars and busses to go to DC to do a day of service. I filled my car up with Anna, Ewa, Elizabeth and my roommate Sam. We ate breakfast at 7:30 and headed to DC (in the pouring rain...again). We got there about 11:30 and headed into do baptisms. We were very overwhelming! There were so many of us in the first group of people that the temple workers didn't know what to do. I think the coolest part about temples outside Utah, is that they don't have a ton of temple workers. Everything was done by the endowed brethren at my school! It was so cool to see all these worthy young men and friends from campus helping all of us do work at the temple. It was a very special day, and the DC temple has become my all time favorite temple!

On the way home, I found a Cafe Rio that I made my car go to! I think Sam and I were the most excited. It tasted soo good! I definitely have missed that!

3. Work is fun! I just love work! I also was caller of the week! :)

4. We have such cool people on campus! Ewa and I went down to dinner on Thursday and the guy swiping are cards said, "I just want to thank you girls for dressing so modestly and staying classy". It made our other wise crappy day, awesome! We talked about how cool it was that he would thank us for something we do everyday. I am thankful that I go to a campus where the dress code is enforced. It just brings the spirit everyday!

5. Along with cool people, we just are a campus full of nice people! After work on Thursday I was waiting for my friend to walk back up the Lofts at 11 at night. Everyone had already left when we started to head outside. Up ahead of us we noticed two guys. As we got closer they were two people we worked with. One of them said, "Do you want to walk up to the Lofts together so you get there safely". I live in about the safest place in the world! But they were just nice enough to do that. It was great!

6. Its just so beautiful! I was helping Anna film a video for videography (which turned out awesome!). We filmed around campus and at one point we just stopped to notice how insanely beautiful the place we live in is!

7.Everyone supports each other! One of the interns that directed my choir the first half of the semester had his senior recital. I decided to go last minute by myself (Ewa was at work). It was incredible to see the entire ballroom full of all these people there to support David! There were lots from my choir and concert choir, Institute teachers (who let me sit by them! I love the Mumfords!), the Provost, people there for fun, and anyone in between. It was super special. David specializes in opera, and the whole concert was truly spectacular.

8. There are trees! I love the tree's! And with fall comes the falling of leaves off of these trees. I have never seen so many leaves on the ground! I just want to run through them and listen to them crunch!

9. The people love it here! To be here, you have to love it. Its small with not a ton to do, so the people that stay here really love it. I love going to work to talk to people about how amazing this school is. And the people I work with are the greatest ever! We all sit and talk about how special our school is and how its' way better then BYU ;). Just kidding. But we do talk about how we may not be the best in sports, but we don't care. How we are small, but it doesn't matter because its cooler to know everyone then to know just a handful of people.

10. We all want to serve the Lord. Sunday morning I was home taught. I was so grateful that they come and take the time just to check in on us, make sure everything is going well and share a gospel message. They also asked if in the closing prayer there was anyone they should pray for. I told them that Grandpa D was in the hospital, so in the closing prayer he made sure to bless him. I am grateful, yet again, for worthy young men dedicated to serving everyone around them.

11. We have Ice Cream! Its addicting!

It was the best of times and the worst of times..

I woke up and Monday I was sick! Everyone here in BV has gotten sick.. and its homecoming week! The sickness was pretty bad monday, and continued on to Tuesday. My throat was super sore, and I had a headache. I went to work, and when I was calling people I sounded like a dying goose!

Wednesday was the weirdest day ever!!! First off, the sky was soo blue!! It was freezing Monday and Tuesday, then today it was soo hot, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! Another good thing that happened was Alley sent me a package!! It was an old book that she got at her bookstore, and then a 12 page letter :) It was soo great!

It had just been a long day for everyone, and after dinner Ewa came back to my room and we were sitting and talking. We were discussing putting our trust in the Lord, and some other stuff like that. Then Anna comes in all shook up, and starts to talk about the thing Ewa and I were just discussing! We had a great discussion, then Ewa went back to work. Anna and I stayed and we were sharing and reading inspirational talks on lds.org. It was pretty great! Then we added Alley to the conversation via FaceTime. At about 10, Rebecca texts me and says she has to tell me something. So I go over to her room and she starts to talk about what we had all been talking about earlier!! It was crazy! Then one of her roommates comes in saying, "There are police everywhere! And on one of their radios it said, there coming to the Lofts." So we naturally assume a murderer is on the loose. We walk out into the hall and a police man is holding open the side door. Rebecca goes to find information and I go back in my room to update Alley and Anna. Anna then looks out the window and sees an ambulance coming up the hill. We go back to the hall and see them wheel in a stretcher and get in the elevator. I guess what happened, was a girl on the third floor was bit by a poisonous spider and couldn't breath. She was put on oxygen, her neck was swollen huge, and she was taken to the hospital. Well At this point it was 10:20ish. Ewa was going to be off work at 10:45, so I sent her a text telling her to come back to my room when she was done. Alley, Anna and I continued to talk then she came over. We all sat and laughed and joked till about 11:30 when Ewa said she had homework due at 11:50.... well what has she been doing! So we ended our call and I helped Sam with an essay she was writing and then got ready for bed. Sam starts to try and fix one of her iron on stencils that was falling of her shirt. At 12:25ish, we smelled something burning. The iron, we assumed, had just burned the iron on. Well at 12:29 Anna sends me a text saying that the light outside our window broke and was on fire! (Backstory- There is this annoying sidewalk light that flashes on and off all night. I have gotten use to it, but its pretty strange because the rest of them don't flash like that.) So what we thought was the iron was actually a real fire! How did we not hear the people saying that outside our window? I HEAR EVERYTHING! Our windows and walls are soo thin! I always hear people talking! It was crazy! I guess another RA broke the Fire extinguisher and put the fire out... man it was an eventful day at the Lofts.

On Thursday I had to drive Rebecca to an appointment in the afternoon. It was in a little place called Fisherville about 45 minutes away! It was so cute! Her appointment was like 5 minutes so after we decided to go explore. I just decided to drive around. I didn't know where in the world I was, but it was the cutest little town. We saw a Virginia souvenir shop and turned into that. It was soo cool! Then we left and saw an antique jewelry shop right next to it. We swung around and went inside. Then we just decided to go to Wendy's for dinner. The poor guy ringing us up was haven a hard time. He charged me for three fries.. Now I love fries, but not that much! Then these two old couples were after us a little bit. The wives left to go to the bathroom, while the husbands were left to remember what they wanted. They just sat there debating kind of loudly if one of the wives wanted sprite or not!!! It was hilarious! We came back to do some homework. My voice this day was gone. The sickness had basically just took my voice away. So I walked down to work and I said something to one of the team leaders. Before I even finished she said, "You're excused." So I wen't back up to my room for the rest of the night.

Friday was crazy! I woke up and my voice was even worse then before! I went to my first two classes then headed to forum. One of our past presidents came to speak for homecoming. He gave a great devotional all about embracing our school and making sure that you become a lifetime learner. It was awesome! We then headed to lunch and then back up to our rooms. I went to Astronomy and then had to help a friend with doing graphs in excel for a math project. I then went back up to the Lofts. I then got Ewa and we pilled our choir dresses into my car because we had our Homecoming concert. We got Anna and drove down to main hall. We went to the bookstore to hear our schools a cappella group perform for the launch of their second CD. They are awesome! After that we went to dinner. We hurried and ate and ran to the car. We grabbed our stuff and went to change. We met for warm ups in the ballroom and then took our seats in the "auditorium". They had us sit on the second row which was awesome! We were way close to the orchestra, then again anyone is close because the place is not that big. It was packed though, which was really fun! I was amazed at the talent here!!! It was such a fun exciting concert with the orchestra, band, flute choir, concert choir, and my choir. I of course mouthed most of the words because my voice was gone. It was weird not having any family there. I just appreciate all of you that have supported me in anything and everything! It was a super fun concert though!

After the concert, Ewa and I rushed to change because she had been invited to come and sing at the homecoming "bonfire". Which was moved inside because of the rain. Now there is a snow cone shack that is famous here. They close up for the winter and turn it into a donut shack (which is a million times better in my opinion!). Ewa wasn't on for a little while so I hopped inline for donuts and hot chocolate! They were freshly made apple cider donuts.. they were amazing! Of course they weren't ready right when everyone started to line up, so we waited in the cold for a very long time but it was worth it! We then rushed into hear Ewa sing and afterwords got another donut!

Saturday we woke up to rain. We got ready and then headed over to the fields for our school's first ever home football game! To get there we walked on the prettiest back pathway! It was soo cool. Now, lets just say... we aren't awful... but we are not the best :) I did absolutely love the people we ended up sitting by! They were hilarious. It was a few people we worked with, and some other people from around school. They were super funny. They had lots of people selling things. For lunch we went and go these pork barbecue fries, from the famous meat shack! It was pretty tasty. We then came back and when I should have been doing homework, I sat and watched TV.... (Spoliers: I regret that Sunday). We went to dinner and then got ready for the dance. I just decided to wear my graduation dress. It was very fun getting all dressed up. I think the best part was that at the dance they had mini cupcakes catered from this delicious place! And the theme was starry night, so there was the painting hanging up really big! It was very cool! We managed to hang out with the group from the football game, man it was awesome! 

Here is a picture of some of the decorations from the dance as well.

Week 6 haze and General Conference

This week was a blur (Therefore, not much happened that I can remember) :). It felt like the longest week. We all entered this state where everything was just funny, and every day felt like one continuous day! So here are some of the things that happened.
On Tuesday, we went to breakfast, and there was this guy that was just staring at the ceiling of the dinning hall. He would walk around and just stare. He didn't look like an official inspector or anything. It was quite strange.

This whole week Ewa and I lived in the library. There is this table on the second floor that looks straight at the door. We sit there and watch people... not a lot gets done, but it makes for very funny moments! I really do enjoy studying in the library surrounded by people and books!

On Friday I drove to DC to participate in General Conference Cousins Fest! When Raquel texted me I was so excited! I packed up and after class got ready to leave. Of course, It was pouring rain! I have never drove up there and here I was driving on a two lane highway, trapped between trucks, in the pouring rain! It was great! I got there a little after 7 and was fed dinner! Man it was great eating food made my family in a family kitchen!

On Saturday I went with Seth to the store. We had to go pick up some medicine and then go get some stuff at Trader Joe's. We left with like 45 minutes till the first session. So we raced! The first stop was right next to a Barnes and Nobles. Naturally I got super excited and made Seth run through the store with me. We then rushed around Trader Joe's as fast was we could. When we got back home we raced inside and got in right after the first song. We dominated! We watched conference, ate delicious food, played games, and got entertained by Brigham at 12:30 at night when he came in my room with the rest of the little kids to hear stories. It was great!

On Sunday, Andrea came in the morning for the day. We ate breakfast and then decided to go on a quick walk before conference. There is a path by their house that is so pretty. So we went on that and then got back for conference. It was so fun to talk to Andrea and all the cousins!

It was apple feast, so we ate lots of dishes full of apples which were delicious! During conference we played two "games". After every talk you had to write down what you thought the title of the talk was going to be in the ensign. That was super fun! It also let me write down a one sentence summary of the talk. It was a cool way to look back and see the themes through conference. The second game was we chose a few trigger words. If a speaker said that exact word we got a point. At the end the total number of points, equaled the number of candy we got! It was super fun!!
It was a great weekend! I didn't leave their house till about 7. And my phone charger wasn't working in the car.. so the last half of the drive was a little interesting. But I made it back around 10!