yet another update...

Wow. I am definitely not good at this whole blog thing. I just can't stay on top of it. Oh well. I guess this means it's time for a very quick update. And since I'm lazy, plus it takes too long, instead of uploading pictures, I'm just going to post links to the pictures on my facebook profile.

November 2008:

My really good friend Alan (from Aspen Grove last summer) left on his mission. I went to his farewell. He will be serving in the Chile Santiago East mission.

I went home for Thanksgiving break. It was my first time back in Tomball since July 2007. It was great to be back! My family moved into their new house in October, so it was great to see it for the first time.

December 2008:

One night, J.J. and I went on a double date with my roommate and his roommate (Michelle and Jon). It was so much fun. We went to Salt Lake-ate at a fancy-shmancy restaurant and went to Temple Square.

Finals...ew. (Enough said). But the good thing about those is I am now officially a Junior (credit-wise at least). I still have a ways to go til I can graduate though.

Christmas break was so awesome. I loved being back with my family. One funny story about Christmas day... Our tradition for Christmas morning is that we (the kids-me, Braden, and Dallin) can't wake our parents up until 7am (and can't go downstairs to the tree/presents either). My dad always goes first to make sure Santa came and to light a fire in the fireplace. In our old house, the fireplace was only gas. In our new house, it's supposedly interchangeable. Christmas morning would have been the first time to use the fireplace. My dad couldn't figure out how to open up the damper or something so after he lit the fire and called up to us to tell us that Santa did indeed visit, all of the smoke alarms went off. And boy was it loud. I though I would have to get some hearing aids afterward! We (the kids) rushed around upstairs opening windows, etc. But we still couldn't go downstairs. Finally, the alarms stopped and we were able to proceed with checking out the loot Santa brought us (about an hour later than normal).

J.J. visited!! He arrived on December 27 and stayed til January 3. That week was probably my favorite part of the break. :) He was able to visit Tomball Ward (THE best ward EVER), and I gave him a tour of Tomball. haha. There wasn't much to show! On Tuesday, J.J., Braden, Dallin, and I went to Space Center Houston. It was a lot of fun.

January 2009:

I can't believe it's 2009 already!! I have a feeling that this year is going to be a big one!

Continuing with Christmas break... Since he was visiting, J.J. celebrated New Year's with my family. January 1st marked him being home from his mission for one year. (Sorry if that sentence doesn't make sense. It sounds kinda awkward to me.)

My dad's birthday was the 2nd. We went down to Galveston and then to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge to see alligators. Sadly, there were no alligators to be found. It was still a nice outing though.

My 2nd semester of my 2nd year at BYU started on January 5th. I'm enjoying my classes this semester. My Shakespeare class is interesting. And I'm taking Doctrine and Covenants (the 2nd half) with J.J. Sadly, due to conflicts with my schedule, I wasn't able to continue with ASL. Maybe I'll get back into it later.

I met J.J.'s family a few weeks ago. (Well, technically last semester I met some of them-his dad and two sisters that are in high school.) I met the rest of them (minus his brother who is serving a mission in Brazil) in January. We went ice skating (and I only fell down once!!). His sister Kandis (a freshman in college) spent the night at my apartment and went to Church with us. I had so much fun. His family is great!

February 2009:

Not much has happened yet, after all, it's still the beginning of the month. I just had my first round of midterms. That was a lot of fun, let me tell you.

This past Saturday night, J.J. and I went to the Young Ambassadors' show..."The New Music Makers." It was so much fun. They are very talented.

This weekend is a three-day weekend (Hurray for President's day!). And guess where I'll be!! In Oregon! J.J. and I are flying up to visit his family. It'll be so great. I'm really looking foward to it.

I've had a great past few months. I'll try to be better at updating.


Photo albums:
Thanksgiving Break in Houston

Fall Semester '08 Continued

Christmas Break in Tomball

J.J.'s Visit to Houston!!



P.S. J.J. has a blog and last week he posted the absolute sweetest blog post I've every read. I love it. You should read it. That's all. Click here.

I'm 20!!! (Yeah, I know this is late...sorry!)

On October 11, I turned twenty!! Wow...I feel old. haha. So on Friday at midnight, I opened up my package from my family. Jamie (my aMaZiNg roommate) and J.J. were there. (Don't worry...we didn't break curfew or anything- curfew is til 1:30am on Fridays.)






The BYU Homecoming game was on my birthday. We played against New Mexico....and won!! It was really cold that day.




After the game, I had a little party/get together thing at my apartment. It was so much fun. J.J., my roommates Jamie, Shalynn, and Ilarene, two friends from last year Chelsea and Erika, and an FHE brother Jon came. We had pizza and cake, hung out, and watched a movie. Oh!! Speaking of cake! My aunt Saundra made an awesome cake for me to surprise me. It's the size of Texas...and I'm NOT kidding!

Basically, I had an amazing birthday. It's still kinda weird to think I'm no longer a teenager, but I love it!

Conference Weekend!!!

This first picture isn't from Conference weekend, but whatever. J.J. is in a history of Jazz class and had to attend a Jazz concert about a week and a half ago. So I went with him. This is a picture of us before the concert...I really like it except the light kinda is reflect weird in one of his eyes. But oh well I guess.


Now for the actually conference weekend. It was so much fun!! My best friend Brittany came down from Rexburg (where she's attending BYU-Idaho) to visit me. I hadn't seen her in over a year so it was so great to see her and catch up and everything. For the Saturday sessions of conference, Brittany, J.J., and I went to my aunt and uncle's house in Lehi. My cousin Cara, her husband Jeff, and their baby Mckenna were visiting. I didn't really get to see Cara, but it was a lot of fun being a baby hog (I'm not sure my cousin Rylie really appreciated that!!).





We (again, Brittany, J.J., and I) went to Jillian's apartment for the Sunday sessions. We met Jillian's boyfriend, Jon (we approve...haha). And during the sessions, we made chocolate chip pancakes! So much fun.




The talks given at Conference were so uplifting. I just love conference!! And it was even better because I was able to spend it with great friends.

catch up time

First of all, I am so grateful that my family is well and safe. We were so blessed.

Alrighty...so I have been a tad bit behind when it comes to putting up pictures, etc. Sorry!

My apartment...I love it! It is just so cute and feels like a little house. And if I haven't mentioned this yet, I love my roommates. All 5 of them are just so amazing! :)

our apartment!!

the living room-we finally started decorating, but it's a work in progress

the poster by the front door is The Office-I love it!!

our cute little kitchen

our "contention prevention" charts...very effective.

our dining room- again, in the process of decorating.
for example, we'll be putting making the wall behind the table into a quote board.

going upstairs...

our bathroom...interesting I know. haha.

and finally, mine and Jamie's room!
Jamie's stuff is on the left, mine is on the right.
also, above the mirror are the words, "you are beautiful" (I know it's hard to see in the picture)

my side of the room. I am so excited to have my Texas flag hanging up (thanks mom!!)
and next to the window are a ton of pictures of family and friends that just make my day whenever I look at them.

my closet/desk space. above the closet, is my name in really cute lettering.
Jamie is just so creative!!

close up of our names over the closet

The first football game of the season was so much fun. We played Northern Iowa. I have seats with some friends from Aspen Grove. Oh, and we won!! 41-17!! :)






Now for some very exciting news (or at least I think so...I don't quite know how my dad, among others, has taken it)....I have a boyfriend! His name is J.J. We're in the same FHE group. And he's just amazing and so much fun to be with and to talk to. J.J. and I went to last week's game together (against Wyoming). Definitely a great game...we beat them 44-0!!! (Second shutout in a row-we beat UCLA 59-0, but I missed that game...sad.) Anyway, it was a great game and it was fun to spend that time with J.J.



My calling in this ward is FHE "mom." haha!! I think it'll be fun. Hopefully I won't make FHE too boring!! (just kidding). So this last Monday was my first FHE being in charge. I decided to make brownies for treat...and let J.J. help me (big mistake-haha!). While I was trying to get all the batter into the pan, he took the wooden spoon and rubbed it on my face-getting batter all over. And then the fight began!! As you can see from the pictures, I was victorious!! :)


Wednesday night, Jamie and I did baptisms in the Provo temple. It felt so wonderful to take the time to go to that glorious place. We're going to try to go every Wednesday after our evening class. Here's a picture of me in front of the Provo temple. Jamie has better pictures, so maybe I'll get some from her and post them.

That's it for now!! Hope everyone is having a great week!! :)

Be safe!!

As Hurricane Ike heads toward my home and family in Houston, I hope and pray that everyone there will be kept safe. I wish I were there with my family so I would know how everything is going, but I guess I will have to settle for worrying here in Utah and waiting for phone calls to keep me updated.

The JKB has been redeemed!

School is in session once again. The first day of fall semester was September 2nd. I am taking 5 classes and they are only in 3 buildings: Eyring Science Center (ESC), Marvin Building (MARB), and Jesse Knight Building (JKB).

My first semester at BYU (Fall 2007), I had 2 classes in the JKB: Math and Student Development. Both were my absolute least favorite classes. Particularly Student Development. I had to take the class because I was in Freshman Academy. I and all the girls in my building (who were also in Freshman Academy) dreaded Tuesday and Thursday afternoons when we would reluctantly make our way to the JKB for the most pointless class in the history of pointless classes. Needless to say, I did not enjoy the time I spent in the JKB.

When I looked at my schedule this semester to determine what building I needed to go to, I was dismayed to discover that two of my classes were in the JKB. I was a bit worried that these two classes (New Testament and ASL 101) would inheritantly be bad because of the building in which they were held. Luckily, I have been very pleasantly surprised. I have ASL four times a week and I enjoy every moment of it. I have an amazing teacher for New Testament (the same teacher I had for Book of Mormon last semester). I can actually say that I now enjoy going to the JKB each day.

As for my other three classes, I'm enjoying them as well. If I had to pick a least favorite class, I would probably say Physical Science 110A. I have lecture 2 times a week, for 1-1/2hrs. Thanks goodness my professor is somewhat entertaining or else I would really have to fight off the temptation to take a nap. I have Physical Science lab for 2 hours every Monday...I think what we'll be doing is working on experiments and then doing lab writeups at home. This class will probably be the most difficult one for me due to the fact that it is science. But I don't think it will be too bad.

In case I haven't mentioned before, I've decided to minor in Family Life. Hence my last two classes: Strengthing Marriage and Family (a class on the Family: A Proclamation to the World) and LDS Marriage and Family (it counts as a religion class as well). My teacher for the Proclamation class is absolutely amazing. I had him last fall semester for Human Development. He is enthusiastic and just knows how to teach.

I am all moved into my apartment and I love it. I knew 2 of the girls from last year (they lived next door to me when we lived on-campus) and the other 3 girls were friends from before. Everyone really seems to be getting along really well. The girls I didn't know are very sweet and easy to live with. After church on our first Sunday here, we had a little roommate meeting of sorts to discuss some rules, chores, things we needed for the apartment, etc. We made 2 little chore charts-one with daily chores and the other with weekly chores. We rotate each day (or week) which chore we're in charge of. I love the name we came up with for the chore charts...."Contention Prevention!" haha! Isn't that creative? I love it. And I think it's really worked so far.

Once I'm finished decorating my room, I'll post some pictures of the apartment. I'm still waiting on a Texas flag to hang on my side of the room. :)

another video

One more post about Aspen Grove....At the end of every closing show, the staff sing and dance. Our song is "We're All in this Together" from High School Musical. As you can see, I am not a very talented dancer, but it was still fun.