A Little Jaunt Home Feb 6-12

Jaunt- "A short excursion or journey for pleasure"

That about sums it up.

This week was CRAZY!

But lets first pause and appreciate the February summer that I am having! Its the best!

I know what you are thinking. "Here goes Lauren again on her love for her children." And yes. That is exactly what I am going to do. These kids are just the sweetest. Kids are truly just tiny adults. They have bad days, hard days, good days, they laugh, they cry, they love food, they love to work hard and have a good time. The lessons they teach me everyday amaze me.

 

I had so much to get done this week in preparation for going home for the weekend. So I didn't make it to FHE, but some of my girls showed up with a decorated cookie for me! It was so kind.

Shadows on the water tower at 10:30pm

And campus coming home at 12:45am..

But seriously. This weather has been insane!

Tuesday ALLEY CAME HOME! Her family had a live video going on Facebook. I watched the whole thing and bawled like a baby when she hugged her family.

 

Picture this. Wednesday morning, 9am. February 8th. 
And I am OUTSIDE doing homework. It was amazing.


Earlier in Institute the power had gone out for maybe five seconds. Then I walked into choir and the power went off again! The whole campus was down. So we started to have class outside and there were firetrucks...
Basically I thought it was a sign that the whole day should have been canceled.
 

One of my favorite classes this semester is Museum Studies. The whole month of February we take one class period a week and go visit a museum in Lexington. This week we went and saw the Archives at the George C Marshall Museum. 


Alley called me when I went to lunch. It was sooo good to hear her voice!

When planning my surprise to go home I knew that I was going to have to try and get ahead in homework. So Wednesday I spent from about 7:30pm to Midnight attempting to study.... Yeah.. attempting being the key word. 
At one point I was starving and I ended up convincing my friend Kevin to bring me food! It was so awesome.


Definition of College. Anywhere you can find a second to sleep, you do.


Thursday I made it to all my classes then rushed to the airport. This was my first time flying out of Roanoke, and as I was boarding the plane I felt like I was Kate Middleton walking out to my private jet.

...except it definitely wasn't a high end jet. It was a tiny scary plane that bounced up and down the whole flight.

Friday I surprised Alley!! It was soooo good! AH! 



Love this girl.


I was grateful that I was able to surprise Alley, have an EFY interview, visit family, and see Klea sing. It was so special.

Why does this happen every time?

I was so grateful for the trip to Utah, but it did feel good to come home to my Virginia Home. ;) I just really love it here and the people here. And a lot of crazy things happened while I was gone that were a little crazy coming back to. But its so nice knowing you are right where you need to be. I know I am suppose to be a student here at Southern Virginia University. What a blessing.

I love you family! Thank you for making this trip work! I loved spending time with you for a few days :)

Jan 30-Feb 5

You know, when there are donuts at FHE, I will always be there. 

But really, I do love FHE and the bonding it helps initiate.

Sometimes you need a pick me up, even at 9am. So Jonzzey's is there to save the day! Lemon poppy seed muffins and salted caramel hot chocolate are two of the greatest things of my life. 

Just look at her cute little body. Man I love these kids.

AH!

So Alley wrote me a whole bunch of "Open When" letters before she left on her mission. I opened one Thursday night that said "Open when you need a laugh." These jokes had me dying of laughter!!

We went and took some pictures after classes on Friday. This is Chalae and Sarah. They are pretty great.

This weekend was SVU Idol. Oh what an adventure. Friday was the first night and there were 10 contestants then narrowed down to 5 for the next night. After SVU Idol we went to a bonfire one of our friends was having at his house. There were a ton of people there! The only problem was that it was freezing, but then you stood by the huge fire and it was way to hot. There was no in between. It became pretty comical. 

It was an open house weekend though which is the bane of all RA's existence. But at the bonfire we were joking around with some of the track recruits. They were hysterical!

Saturday I worked more on the puzzle that I started the night before. I can't get anything done because I just want to finish it! I love it!! 

One thing I love about my school is all the nature. I always walk home and find a friend.

We went to a tai restaurant in Lexington for one of my girls birthday. It was delicious!! And they gave us free coconut ice cream. 

 

The best part of the second night of SVU idol, was the Elvis impersonator we hired to entertained us while decisions were made and votes tallied. He's from Lynchburg and won first place in an Elvis impersonator competition in Nashville. He was the best thing ever!

I love people. And I love this quote about people.

Sunday we had a wonderful Sacrament Meeting. I bore my testimony on Hardheartedness. All through 1 Nephi it repeats over and over again that Lamen and Lemuel were hardhearted. I started to think more about this. As humans I think we are all hardhearted. It's way easier to be hardhearted than it is to keep pressing forward sometimes. But this gospel is built on actions. We READ, PRAY, LISTEN, FAST, PAY tithing. Everything is an action. As we continually do these things we can overcome our hardheartedness. 

Honor Week! Jan 22-29

I love where I live and have the chance to go to school. 

I LOVE it.

Did I mention i'm a famous hand model? 

Sunday's are kind of crazy now, but I still love them. Its dedicated a whole day to service and Christ. And possibly sleep. After some of my meetings I went on a drive with my friend up to the parkway. It was all rainy and foggy and look how pretty! We were on top of the world!

I was writing Alley on Sunday and we both were talking about how different things shape who we are. The Lord teaches us and puts us in many different experiences that our tailored to us. I appreciated what she said about her learning and growing on her mission, and about me growing here at SVU.

Here is a shot of the parking lot. HAHA

We have been having the warmest winter ever. A lot of days I am just in a cardigan! Its been the best. This is a horrible picture but some girls were just laying out on tables basking in the sun. I want to do that!

Have I mentioned I love my job?

This is Sarah. I love this girl. I think we drive each other absolutely crazy, but hey, at least its mutual!

Friday some of my friends (myself included) needed to go do something crazy. And its important to go hang out with people you don't necessarily do stuff with everyday. So Chalae, Cody Barnes, Sarah, and Catherine and I headed off to the most entertaining place in miles..

Walmart!

 

I decided the RA's needed a pet. We could pass it around each week.

We had quite the adventure let me tell ya. Our goal was to find the craziest kids toy. I think we all appreciated going back to the good old days (last week), and playing with the kids toys! 

Saturday I woke up to try and get some homework done! I was pretty successful and then we went to the boys basketball game. It was getting intense man! It was also kind of sad because the whole cross country team, who I spend a lot of time with, was at a meet.. But it was still good.

That night it was honor ball. It looked so pretty! And we had this professional jazz band from Lynchburg. They were AMAZING! I just liked standing there listening to them!

We left the dance and decided we needed cookies. So Sarah and I traipsed through Walmart in our dresses and bought cookies!

Sunday we had an awesome combined third hour where the Bishopric answered questions that we submitted the week before. 

My favorite question: Can you draw a Dinosaur?

Have I ever told you about this crazy girl that I call my sister?

Raleigh Adventures Jan 15-21

I have developed this habit of going down to campus after 9pm and working on homework in the Library or Jonzzeys. Its quiet, it doesn't contain my bed which is super comfortable and calls my name, and my favorite part is walking home. I love walking at night! And we have had the greatest weather!

I was able to work on Visiting Teaching with my counselors this week. Its always a really cool experience. 

Saturday we went on adventure to the Raleigh Temple. What Sarah and I didn't know...was that there isn't a straight route to Raleigh from our school. You have to go winding through all these side streets. It was raining and an absolute beautiful drive! It just took FOREVER!

We arrived and went to Panara for Lunch. I have never really liked Panara, but this time I loved it! I got a delicious sandwich and mac and cheese! ..and I may or may not have gotten a chocolate croissant. 

 

We then went walking around the quite town of Raleigh. I am in love! We had so much fun and met this amazing lady at her art gallery. I was just in heaven. Art, antiques, book stores, and quaint shops!

 
 

The beautiful temple :)

 
 

It took us 5 hours instead of 3 to get home because we went just the freeway route because it was pouring rain and safer that way. So we got home in a fluster.. but it was a good little adventure!