A little road trip

THANK YOU LYNN! It was so much fun to drive in the car with Lynn! We had some amazing conversations and discussions on lots of different topics! We both agreed that the drive never felt long because we were having a great time! We ate lots of subway, enjoyed the lovely changing scenery and had a crazy night trying to find a hotel in Indianapolis! Thanks to Keith who picked up Lynn so I only had to drive an hour and a half by myself! Most of all Thank you Dad!!!! Without his help every night, Lynn and I wouldn't have slept in a hotel, or gotten to Virginia! So Thank you!!

 You can't really see it.... but there is nest in the car window! I still haven't gotten it out.

Liberty Jail! A family came in about the same time we did. They said they were from Sandy and I told them I was from Draper going out to SVU. They asked if I know Sam Hyer! YES! SHE WAS MY ROOMMATE! They use to be in the same ward. Oh its a small world.

 Thanks Dad for finding this place for us! Soo Yummy!

 These made no sense!

Some things I learned (or really realized) Second Semester

1.  I really like sheep... Not just a tiny tiny bit.. like a WHOLE lot!

2."Picking up trash obsessions" can be considered a problem.. If I see a piece of trash I HAVE to pick it up! I feel like I will get in trouble later if I don't. When some of my friends discovered this they would look at me and purposely drop trash. This caused a full on panic attack in my soul. I can't even think straight when I know I am so close to trash that I could be picking up! Granted I also came to realize that this is an issue. In the words of my friend Jared "Go plant a flower!" What I learned from him that day is that I should stop worrying about a lot of the little things!

3. I LOVE soft serve ice cream!!

4. I discovered that I love running, especially when i'm stressed out. Running through quaint Buena Vista, past old victorian houses and many churches, calmed me down! I felt happy and loved the hours that running gave me with my friends. We had many wonderful talks during runs that were my favorite things ever! (Night Runs particularly are my favorite!)

5. I like snow! That is snow that falls in Virginia! Its a lot different than Utah snow no matter what anyone says. I loved sitting inside and watching it gently fall (or blizzard down). And when you have 40 of your friends all participating in a snowball fight.. It pretty much equals the best day ever!

6. You can, and should!, turn to the scriptures in every situation! I went through a weird relationship with someone that I thought was one of my really good friends. We were just going to different directions. I was talking to another friend about how frustrated the whole situation made me. He told me to go read my scriptures so the next day I didn't wake up frustrated. The next day when I was still a little shook up I opened my scriptures. I automatically calmed down! The spirit that is in the book is constant. You can be happy, mad, sad, ecstatic, giddy, or frustrated and the scriptures will always help!

7. It's important to really ask those around you if you can do anything for them. Sometimes we get caught up in our own situations and worries that we take advantage of the amazing people that are surrounding us. I sometimes struggle with asking my friends if there is anything I can do for them and consistently forgetting to do that just leads to selfishness and bad relationships between people. When you truly care about someone you will always make an effort to help them in anyway that you can.

8. Happiness is a choice. Everyone has the power to be happy. How you react to a situation changes everything. If you can just find the good in everyday and focus on trying always to be happy, your life reflects that! Being happy is amazing!

Last Week of Freshman Year... May 4-

Monday I had my Philosophy final at 8 in the morning. I woke up and went down to the test with a big group of girls all leaving the lofts. It was a little challenging. You would get a quote or idea of a philosopher and you had to match it to the correct person. I felt confident on most of it except the essay parts. After that final I was done for the day. I really can't remember what I did after that. I am pretty sure I ate some food, cleaned and packed my room, and sat and talked to people! At about 3:30 I headed out to go pick up Alley at the airport! I was super excited and the hour drive felt like 10! Once we got back to campus we went to dinner. I'm sure Alley felt a little overwhelmed by all the people that knew her name and that she was coming... what can I say? She's my best friend and its a small school! I had to go to a rehearsal for my theatre history final so we ran to the dance studio after dinner. After that we got Alley settled into my room and we all went on a walk of campus. After the walk we hung out in the lobby and then Alley and I just sat in my room and talked till past midnight. She gave me my birthday present (it was a super super cute sheep stuffed animal!) and I went and took a shower. I did love the couple texts I got at midnight and a little after from people wishing me a happy birthday!

Tuesday it was my birthday!! Alley and I went to breakfast. I left her to wonder around while I went to my Theatre History final. It went super long... but my group did a really good job! After class I called Alley and ran into John-John. We all sat and talked for a little bit and then Alley and I went back up to the room. We actually started packing and then went to lunch. After lunch my friends and I all went and sat in front of main hall on the rocking chairs. It was really fun because they were starting to hang up the flower baskets all around main hall! I thought that that was a pretty great birthday presents. We went back up to our rooms to start packing and my whole door and room were decorated! My friends had secretly done it! It was the nicest thing ever! Alley and I then went to Lexington to go to my favorite book store and then went back to campus and sat with Anna in front of the Koi pond! Everyone met us down there and then we went to dinner. I think my favorite part of the day was right after dinner. All of us sat at a picnic table right outside the dinning hall for three or four hours! It was the best! And then we went in and got midnight breakfast! It was a super great day!

Wednesday we hung out and kept packing and went to lunch. All of us ended up sitting with Jared while he was swiping cards and joked around for a while! I had to take Daphne to our storage unit and while I was there a giant bolt got stuck in my tire! I was so frustrated because that was one more thing I needed to go get fixed the next day! We went to dinner and then that night went to the last Shenanigans show of the semester! Those are some of my favorite things ever! It was so funny!

Last time all of us would be together for a little while! 

Thursday Alley and I woke up early and went to Walmart where there is a tire place. They said it was going to be a bit and that made me kind of upset. So we ran in to Walmart and bought some breakfast. I called Sam asking if she could come get us so we could make it to graduation. Right when she got there they took my car in..... So we ended up just waiting! I felt bad that I made her drive over! She's a pretty great roommate! The car got fixed and then we drove as fast as we could to catch graduation! It was really really hot, but super fun! I got to sit by Kailey, Jared, Katie, Alley, Genny, Alex, and Anna! It was great! Super super funny! After that finished I said some goodbyes :( and ran up to my room to finish last minute cleaning and getting checked out. We sat and talked to Jane for a while and then started to leave. It was super weird being in there with absolutely nothing in the room. It was a full circle to end where it started. It was really sad actually but fun to look back on the semester and see how i've changed! Alley and I then went to cook-out for lunch! Later we went to dinner and then sat and talked all around campus till 7 when we went to a piano concert! It was two of the Taylor brothers who are so talented!!! Then it was time for the last goodbyes to people and it was a little emotional.... then Alley and I drove off to Roanoke to pick up my dad. It was super good to see him, but I was so sad to leave!

The next three days were full of long long drives. We spent some time in Nashville which is a city I have really wanted to visit! I loved everything about it! It was fun to see Steve's house and spend some time with him. He took us into the city and out to eat and it was great! I am beyond grateful for my time at SVU! It was a perfect match for me! I have been touched by tons of students and professors. I learned a lot in many subjects, the church, and about who I am as a person! I can't wait to go back and see the adventures that will come with being an RA and being a year older!

 I loved the name of this place! HAHA

 So even though it was May we got caught in a very big snow storm!

I think I should be studying.... April 26-May 3

I can't believe i'm almost not a freshman anymore! WHAT!? I have a lot of mixed feelings on this subject.

Monday was the last day of all my Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes. They were pretty easy and relaxed and I was done before 11:30! One tradition we have is that at the end of your last class you all applaud your professors. I think its really cool because we know how much they do for us! It was a bit cold and rainy which meant that I got to go to class in the fog.. oh how i'm going to miss those!

Tuesday was the last day of the rest of my classes. I didn't even have one of them and we watched a movie and then I had a test in the last one. That night I had a work party! I am super grateful for everyone that I work with. They are hilarious and continuously make me smile! We played kickball up on the softball field and had tacos. Dan made the best shredded chicken I have ever had! I also won a Lizzie McGuire CD.. basically my childhood! After that Alex, Anna, Daphne, and I all went on a Walmart adventure. We were buying stuff for projects and presents. These adventures are another thing I will really miss!

Wednesday was the first reading day. Savannah and I woke up to go for a very pretty morning run. I came back and let Anna vent to me for a little bit and then at 12 I went to lunch. At 2 I went and helped Genny with her Athletic Training final and then I went and talked to John John for a bit. We have missionaries that are right on campus and they like to try and meet with every student. I hadn't met with them so at 3:30 I went and met with them. We talked about Christ coming and the foundation of our church. It was wonderful! I love the Elders! I had some dinner and then got ready for the YSA barn dance! There is this big park right by our school called the Glen Maury Park. It has this giant pavilion and the stake decorated it with hay bales and flowers and made it feel like a barn. They played music and we danced and JJ's Meat Shack catered, same with the Snow Cone shack! It was so much fun. We were talking about how we could look around and know everyone! We were one big giant happy family and the event was the essence of what SVU was. It was a sad moment realizing that this is probably the last time that this group of people will be together.

Thursday we woke up early and headed to the temple. In my car was Savannah, Anna, and Erika. That was probably the fastest I had ever gotten to the temple and that was even with a slight getting lost detour... We were there a bit early before they could get us in so we went to the visitors center. We talked with some sister missionaries and we watched the Because He Lives video again. It's soo good! We met some other people from our school then and did baptisms. I always love doing baptisms with people from school because it makes me realize the true blessing of the priesthood every time! We all decided to go to Cafe Rio and that was one of the craziest drives. I just don't like driving in DC. They have all these sneaky roads! We then had to back track to the Lambert house so I could return a suit case. The drive home was even crazier because we got stuck in a rain storm (like always!) and I couldn't even see the lines on the road. It was very stressful so I was glad I made it safe. I got back and started to study for my first final the next day.

 It was so fun driving up and seeing all the flowers!!!!!!!

Friday I woke up to study Microeconomics. I studied for a while and then went to Lunch. I kept studying and took a packing break, but I was going crazy! At 3 I took it and it was bad.... I didn't know very much. I felt like there was a lot on there that we had never gone over. After the test I went into the dinning hall and talked to Laine and Nicole. I got a bowl of ice cream and that led to us three and Kailey sharing three bowls! Nicole and I then studied for our test that was on Saturday. We were there for a little while and then I ran and got something to eat for dinner and brought Nicole something back. Then our friends Ryan and Jared came up one right after the other and convinced us to go to the drive in movie theatre with a huge group that was. Basically half of SVU went! It was sooo much fun!!! They played the new Avengers and Cinderella. it was great! We sat on a tarp with blankets for Avengers and then it was cold so the people that rode in my car went into my car. We got back after 1 in the morning...

Saturday I went to breakfast and talked to John John, then Nicole and I met back in the library to study. We studied all that we could and then talked for twenty minutes before we took our final. We got the hardest essay question and we both felt like we probably got a B. After that Nicole and I went and talked while she packed and then I took Savannah and Alex to get lunch. We talked in my car for a while and then got some lunch. After that we got ready for the Adult Session of Stake Conference. It was really good. They talked about councils. It was really interesting.

Sunday was really nice and a little sad! We had Stake Conference and during the closing hymn I got really sad thinking about how that was my last sunday here for a while.. We headed to lunch and then we sat and talked outside for a little bit. I came up and studied for my Philosophy final with Elizabeth and Anna. I talked with my mom and Camille and then went and walked around. I ran into Katie and Crystal and then Savannah and Alex. We decided to make this giant game our of chalk for people when they left their finals. We then sat outside till dinner and then had a very entertaining dinner with Jared, Savannah, Anna, and Rebekah. Im just easy to tease.. ;) After dinner I came back and studied a bit more and then went to the CES broadcast. It was really good!! He talked all about recognizing that you have a stronger testimony than you realize. After that we went to the last hymns on a hill. It was kind of sad! After that a group of people sometimes get together and share their testimonies. We stayed for a bit and then I came back to take a shower and go over my notes a bit more.

All in all, finals have been really hard and I don't know how well i've done.. but socially it was a very fun week! Actually, the basically sums up the semester.