brilliant! gorgeous! talented! fabulous! janaya l.

the games are a foot, sort of.

2012-01-11T21:07:00.000-08:00

well, no one ever said the life of a coach was easy. today was the first day of tryouts for the mens competitive basketball teams. which means today was also the first day of drafting. we got to draft 5 players for our varsity team. we got the number 3 pick for the first round and got our first pick for that. he was really good at tryouts, a great point guard. our second pick got taken by someone else first round. then second round we were number 7 pick, we ended up getting another really good player, a post. (you know they are good players when you pick them and other coaches moan because they got picked). however, this player, unknown to us, was one another coach (or actually his assistant coaches) really wanted. they knew him. he had been on their team before. so, while we finished the rest of drafting they texted him and told him to change his practice time availability. he did. so they showed the coordinator a text from him saying he could only practice at their time, so after 5 rounds of drafting we lost our second pick draft. that was a pain. so now we only have 4 players (when we should have 5). it was a hard day. but i am excited to get back at it again tomorrow. we got guaranteed first pick tomorrow, plus then normal rotation in the rest of the draft process as well. so we'll get 6 picks tomorrow instead of just 5. not to mention, the coordinator ended up giving our second pick to the one other coach practicing at the same time as the two conniving assistant coaches. so we were glad they didn't get our pick after going behind our back. it was just a crazy day. we ended up spending almost as much time drafting as we did at the tryouts. it is going to be a long 2 days thursday and friday. i am excited though. it was fun getting to walk around checking out players and talking to them. layton, our head coach, picked lauren and my favorite guy for our third pick. that made us feel good. i have on guy that i still really like, he would work for a post, but i have to convince him he wants to practice at 6am. haha. it is going to be hard to sell that one, but i feel really good about him. he was awesome, was quick, bigger than most the other guys, and played well with others. he impressed me. i don't know if that is saying much, i still feel like i don't know very much, so i don't push my picks as much, but i am excited to get started with the practices and games!!

scripture of the day:
my new mantra that i have adopted for the rest of the basketball season, especially during drafting:
Article of Faith 13: We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul - We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured all things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

today i am thankful for:
* a coach who cares about what i think.
* new experiences.
* attending a school with a variety of opportunities for growth and learning.
* fun roommates.
* people with manners.

<3.

she shoots, she scores!.

2012-01-09T13:47:00.000-08:00

for the past couple of semesters lauren and i have discussed how much fun it would be if we coached basketball together. well, this is lauren's last semester and we decided, it was now or never. i was looking at a student update email from school when i saw it, "coaches needed for men's competitive basketball." i took my computer in to lauren and showed it to her. we gave each other a look and then emailed the guy it said to email. the next day we went in for an interview with him (yes, the competitive leagues up here are pretty serious). he talked to us and we talked to him. we were nervous because we have never coached before and we wanted to make sure we thought we could do it, make sure we were comfortable. after talking to him for a while we decided it might be better if we were assistant coaches. the next day after that we went to a training meeting for coaches, took our first response safety test, and met the coach we would be working with, layton. he seems really cool, and is excited to have us for assistant coaches. also, he informed us that he wanted to be able to focus most of his energy on the varsity team, and so he made us the coaches of the jv team, which is crazy, but exciting! i have never done anything with the school before, and definitely never done anything like this before! coaching? who ever thought i would be a coach, or even assistant coach, for a basketball team. insane! so, long story short, you are now looking at a new assistant varsity coach for the men's competitive basketball league at byu-i as well as a new jv coach for the men's competitive basketball league at byu-i!

a picture of me from family photo day, no blog should be posted without a picture. :)

looks like it is going to be a crazy semester after all. i have a meeting today, a meeting tomorrow, and then wednesday - friday we have tryouts and get to draft our players. then every week (starting next week) i have practices from 6-730am every tuesday and thursday and a varsity game every friday as well as a jv game every saturday. who said being off-track was easy? haha. i am excited, and nervous! i can't wait, i think this is going to be an awesome semester!

scripture of the day:
D&C 8:10 Remember that without faith you can do nothing; therefore ask in faith. Trifle not with these things; do not ask for that which you ought not.

today i am thankful for:
* lauren and her willingness to do crazy things with me.
* trying new things.
* faith.
* a new ward and new people.
* an old ward and old people who still bless my life.
* recipes.
* strength.

<3.

project pinterest.

2012-01-09T13:27:00.000-08:00

there are always so many cool looking projects on pinterest that i think to myself, "hey, you should do that." but then, i never do. for some reason, it is easier not to do projects than to do them, who knew! well, i got back up to idaho, and i found myself thinking more and more about this project i had seen on pinterest. (here) i decided, why not do it! i don't have much else going on since i am off-track and still looking for a job. so i decided to make myself a magnet make-up board. i was off to DI in a flash, i went straight to the picture frame isle. the picture frames were in short supply. then, at the very bottom of a pile of frames i spotted something. at first i thought, "that's gross." and then i remembered i would be painting it and realized, "ohh, i would really like that." so i grabbed it.

$1.50

i love the embellishment in the corner!

then i decided to get some glasses to put my tall lanky items in, mascara, eyeliner, brushes. i found one that i loved! it was like an octagon, and then a short round one i thought would work well too.

$2.00 for both

after that i stopped at walmart and bought some spray paint. i also bought magnets. then it was off to porters to purchase some fabric, metal sheets, and glue.

had to buy some metal for the magnets to stick to.

then over the course of two days i spray painted, glued, taped, and finally finished!

again, love the corners, it makes it look more vintage.

we had fabric wars in my apt, i had two to choose from, this one won!

sorry it's blurry, but this is what i see on my wall every day now.

i really like it! it looks pretty, it's functional, and it is just fun to wake up and see something i made on the wall. so don't be afraid of those pinterest projects you want to try! just try them! i think you'll love it.

scripture of the day:
Lamentations 3: 40-41 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens.

today i am thankful for:
* cute ideas from random strangers.
* making good choices.
* the wonderful people in my life who bless me.
* a (very early) ride to the airport, last week, from mama johnson.
* a ride home from the airport, last week, from sam basilius.
* amazing new (and old) roommates who make me smile and laugh.
* comfy beds.

<3.

fhe boys.

2011-12-10T13:27:00.001-08:00

this is the video of my fhe boys showing off their talented dance moves for the ward variety show. this pretty much shows why i love them so much! <3.

click here for video.

talent.

2011-12-10T12:33:00.001-08:00

last night we had our ward closing social with variety show. of course my roomies (a few of them at least) and i had to show off our many talents with a musical skit. it was a tribute to the "it" guy in our ward, marc lefevre.

here is a picture of him that i stole off facebook for you all so you can see who he is. ;)

i hope that you enjoy it! <3.

click here for video

giving thanks.

2011-11-26T15:29:00.001-08:00

well, i was supposed to write this up and post it a long time ago, but as it turns out i am in college and constantly busy! but, here it is! better late than never i always say! starting about 3 weeks before our thanksgiving break everyone starts asking everyone else what they are doing for thanksgiving. this semester i was staying in rexburg, because i am too poor to go home, and so was not sure what i was going to do for thanksgiving. once i told people this news i started getting offers all over the place of people i could stay with and things i could do. it was nice. it made me feel loved. i had a ton of offers to go to people in idaho falls' houses. offers from people in rexburg to have thanksgiving dinner with them. even a few offers from people to take me with them to utah, oregon, and washington. all in all, i had about a million options of things that i could do for thanksgiving day to choose from. as thanksgiving kept getting closer and closer people kept asking me what i was doing and i'd tell them i had options but hadn't decided yet. the more and more i thought about what i wanted to do i realized, nothing. i didn't want to do any of the things that had been offered to me. i wanted, more than all those things, to spend thanksgiving day, all alone, in my apartment. i know that this may sound depressing, but look at it from my view. i live in an apartment with 5 other girls. from the start of the semester to the end of the semester i never have a moment to myself. there is always someone around, always something to be doing. i wanted a day, where it was just me, in a quiet house, doing the things i wanted to do. so, that's what i did. it was fantastic and wonderful! i really did love it. i am naturally a very private person, i like quiet time, i like not having to talk to people constantly. i mean, i do enjoy people, and i love my roommates, and i love that i get to live with them. if i lived all alone all semester i would be completely bored! but, it was still nice to have a day with just me in my apartment. i made myself a delicious thanksgiving meal, i wasn't about to miss out on that part of the day! i had lemon pepper chicken, twice baked potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, steamed broccoli, rosemary bread with laughing cow cheese, and pumpkin pie for dessert. it was super delicious! my favorite was the twice baked potato casserole, it is definitely one of my favorite things, it isn't really a casserole, but thats just what i call it!

all the food, it took me days to finish

my favorite! twice baked potato casserole :)

the plate of food i ate for my thanksgiving dinner

it was delicious and i loved it. i hope you all had a fantastic thanksgiving yourselves!

scripture of the day:
D&C 59:7 Thou shalt thank the Lord thy God in all things.

today i am thankful for:
* quiet time.
* having so many people who care about and love me.
* roommates and friends that i always have fun with!
* my family!!
* the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
* no snow! it's only snowed 4 times this semester so far, it is fantastic!

<3.

is there a good reason to buy knee highs?.

2011-10-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

all my life i have had a firm belief that there is no good reason to buy tights or knee highs or anything of the sort. panty hose? no go! i do not buy them, i do not wear them, i do not like them! however, tonight, i bought a box of 10 pairs of knee highs. black in color. i am sure you are all wondering ... why?!?! and that is a very good questions. so, here is why:

also a good use for knee highs.

super funny.

the girls after the flour fight.

the boys after.

we had a flour fight for FHE!! it was pretty wonderful! it was so funny. we ran around, we hit each other with flour filled knee highs. a VERY good use of knee highs! we tossed flour in each others faces. it was definitely a super fun fhe. i have always wanted to do this, but my fhe boys have always been skeptical, making my girls skeptical. but, this semester, we are all so much fun! it has been so great! i am so grateful for my fhe boys!!

scripture of the day:
2 Corinthians 9:11 Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.

today i am thankful for:
* panty hoes, tights, knee highs.
* danny, cole, spencer, braden. (dustin and brandon too, but they weren't there tonight).
* the many uses of flour.
* parks where you can run around and throw baking ingredients.
* cameras, to catch fun moments.

<3.

fhe boys.

2011-10-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

i am supposed to be running out the door for class right now, but i had to share this with you. the video found here is a video my fhe boys made. i think it shows very well what i am dealing with this semester. the first 50 seconds are my favorite. all my fhe boys are in the first part, plus an extra. the extra is the kid in the white "war is over" shirt, his name is greg and he is my new little brother. they are all pretty funny, i love them a lot! i hope you enjoy!

a key to the boys:
spencer - grey shirt.
brandon - sunday clothes.
cole - orangey red plaid(ish) shirt.
braden - black quiksilver shirt
dustin - blue v-neck (with the girl)
danny - blue shirt with stripe.

<3.

"montana is all i hoped it would be"

2011-10-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

well, just when i thought nothing could surprise me, i was told by my natural disasters teacher that we would be going on a field trip. yes. a field trip. in college. i won't lie, i thought field trips ended in middle school. i am pretty sure that is the last time i went on one. but alas, apparently college likes to bless your life with field trips as well. so today i went on a field trip. yes. a saturday field trip. i was gone from my apt from 740am to 525pm. yes. a long field trip. luckily for me two of my fhe brothers are also in my natural disasters class so they accompanied me on the field trip. plus, when we were waiting for the buses a friend from my first semester up here, patrick, showed up. apparently he is in the earlier class and so he also had to go on the field trip. so i knew a good number of people. first we went up to the teton dam. saw the remains. talked about how it failed. so enlightening. then we headed over to the something something caldera. (a caldera is where there used to be a volcano but when it exploded it fell in on itself so now its mostly just flat land.) here brother clayton did a demonstration with diet coke and mentos to show what a volcano may have been like. it was pretty cool. i have done it before though, so i don't think i was as impressed as some. next we went to henry lake then hebgen lake. as you go from henry lake to hebgen lake you cross over into montana for a while. as soon as we crossed over i looked at spencer and said, "where are all the horses?" he was a little confused, so i explained to him that i always felt that montana was the land of horses. about 45 seconds later what should we see? a bunch of horses on the side of the road. and then, no more than a minute later we see about a dozen cowboys, on horses, herding cows across the highway. spencer looked at me, expecting a comment i am sure, so i said, "montana is all i hoped it would be." we had a laugh, and left it at that. all day we talked about fault scarps and schist. i really had no clue what my teacher was saying all day. my favorite moment was when my teacher said, "look down at the ground. all of the stuff you are standing on is schist." and spencer mumbled, "i knew it!" haha, i don't know why, i think it was probably one of those 'you had to be there' moments. after the lakes we headed over to west yellowstone, didn't really see anything there, just stopped for lunch. next we went to big springs where we saw, some springs, they weren't very big, at least not that i could tell, but there was a cute little house (as in a tiny, troll sized house) off on one side and i told spencer he should live there, i think he was considering it. after the springs we were off to our final stop of the day ... mesa falls. i was kind of excited about this, because i had heard it was really cool, but, not excited because i knew there would be many stairs involved. and stairs aren't my favorite. ;) but, we got there and headed down towards the falls. let me tell you ... AMAZING!

mesa falls, it was so pretty.

it was so cool. i absolutely love nature, i really do, i just don't like having someone standing there telling me all of the geological features of how nature was created. overall, mesa falls was definitely my favorite, and the stairs really weren't that bad. it was an interesting field trip. it was long, and sometimes boring, but it was also fun. i enjoyed getting to talk to patrick again. i think spencer is hilarious. and i got to learn some new stuff about my fhe brother cole. it was a good time. i tried to get some good pictures on the drive of the leaves changing colors just for my mom. i didn't do too great, but these are a few of the pictures i ended up with on the drive.

good one of the colors.

who knew trees could do this? not people from arizona!

nice close up, not as many colors though.

i love the clouds in this picture.

scripture of the day:
Moses 1:33 And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.

today i am thankful for:
* spencer and cole. i have really enjoyed having a class with these two and getting to know them better.
* the wonders and mysteries of God. sometimes i like knowing how things happened and how they work, and sometimes, i just like knowing that God created a world that i find so beautiful.
* canada dry. ginger ale has become one of my new favorite things.
* friends and family who text you for 8 hours so you don't get too bored on a bus while your fhe boys are sleeping.
* music. it is fantastic and wonderful and i love it!

<3.

soccer for the soul.

2011-10-13T20:53:00.000-07:00

every semester lauren is on one of the ward sports teams. this semester is soccer!

our team. :)

i love going to her games because it gives me a chance to hang out with people from the ward, and cheer them on. tonight she had her second soccer game of the semester, and being the supportive roommates we are, stephanie and i attended. we got there and found a net to hide in, even though they don't really hide you all that well.

there is a chain link fence behind us and the net infront

once the game started we decided to take our rightful spot on the sidelines to cheer, and coach if necessary. after about 5 minutes my new bestie/little brother, greg, showed up to cheer on some of the boys.

he and i spent the entire game just goofying off and having fun. i love going to lauren's games. it is always such a stress reliever for me. i just get to hang out and spend time with people. no homework to worry about, no school to think of, just me, some friends, and the sideline. needless to say, i can't wait for the next game!

spencer, greg and me after the game.

scripture of the day:
Alma 7:12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

today i am thankful for:
* new (and old) friends.
* an awesome ward.
* sweaters that protect you from the wind.
* soccer games.

<3.

lessons learned at byu-i.

2011-10-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

so, for the past few days i have been thinking about how much i learn here at school. usually i learn a lot more about myself, and about the Gospel, than i actually learn about money management, light & sound, or natural disasters. that is part of why i like being here so much! so, that thought coupled with having THIS SONG stuck in my head the past week or so, has made me decide to start a blog within my blog about the lessons i learn here at school. these posts will always be titled the same as this one, and then the title of the lesson will be the first sentence of the actual post itself. rather self explanatory i believe. so let us start today!

kindness is the essence of greatness

how wonderful is that simple statement? kindness is the essence of greatness. a few months ago i was writing a letter to jayce about this very topic. i was re-reading it in order to write this blog, and realized, i probably can't say it any better than i said it to him, so, i am just going to post the letter here:

May 8, 2011

Dear Jayce,

Kindnessis the essence of greatness?

Haveyou ever just wanted nothing more than to be great? To be awesome and wonderfuland fantastic. To have people everywhere love you because of your astonishinggreatness? I would be lying if I said I haven’t. And since I don’t like lying,I will tell you. I wish everyday that I was great. I think it would be prettyawesome to be walking around school, or church, or even just walking aroundtown, and have people everywhere know who you are and want to talk to you. Iwould feel so amazing. I have often tried to figure out what I could do to makemyself that type of person. In my mind I had to have really awesome things. AndI would definitely have to have a lot of money. I’d have to dress really cool,and have the latest and greatest of any and all inventions. I even tried thisfor a while. Trying to assimilate and be like everyone else, be what I thoughtthey wanted me to be, and yet, I still didn’t seem to be great. Then, in a general conference, Elder Wirthlin gave a talk and he told me exactly howto be great.

Kindnessis the essence of greatness.

Itseems so simple. Almost too good to be true. Really? If I want to be great allI have to do is be kind? No. That is far too easy, it will never work. Peopledon’t like people who are nice, people like people who are awesome! Wrong.People really do like people who are nice. I am beginning to realize that thissemester. I decided to listen to the council given in conference and try tofind my greatness through kindness. Let me tell you Jayce, first of all, beingkind, so much fun! I love being kind. I love thinking the best of people, andgiving everyone the benefit of the doubt. I love being the person people cometo talk to because they know I won’t judge them or make them feel silly. I loveseeing people smile when you give them something fun. I love hearing people say“thank you”. I love knowing that I helped someone else feel good aboutthemselves. I love being kind! And let me tell you what else, I have never feltso GREAT in my life before. I feel like a superstar. I am so happy! Life isstill hard, and, I will admit, every once in a while my kindness fails me, butI love being kind. There really is nothing else like it in the world!

KindnessIS the essence of greatness!

Itreally truly is. So, if you're feeling like you wish you were totally legit. Theraddest guy ever, the coolest cat on the block, the fly-est homie around town.Be kind. Really, what do you have to lose? What is so bad about being good? Youwill never feel better than when you are completely kind to those around you.Who should you be being more kind towards? Who should you really be showingyour love to? Who should be getting your praise and your attention? Think aboutit. I promise you, you know who the people around you that you are neglectingare. Don’t let yourself be unnecessarily unhappy or burdened because you aren’twilling to be patient and kind to them. Kindness is not, and will not, alwaysbe returned, but as you continue to live your life in kindness, what others dowill not matter so much anymore, because you will start being able to feel goodabout what you are doing. Kindness is the essence of greatness, so, if it’s sosimple, why not choose to be great?

Ilove you.

<3.

JanayaL. Johnson

Also, as i was thinking of this 'lesson learned' i was reading Elder Wirthlins talk and there were some things he said that i absolutely loved, so here they are too.

"Kindness is the fundamental characteristic of the noblest men and women. Kindness is a passport that opens doors and fashions friends. It softens hearts and molds relationships that can last lifetimes. Kind words not only lift our spirits in the moment they are given, but they can linger with us over the years."

"As our Heavenly Father loves us, we also should love His children. May we be models of kindness. May we ever live up to the words of the Savior: 'By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.'"

"Who can tell what far-reaching impact we can have if we are only kind?"

i know that kindness truly is the essence of greatness. i know that as we choose to be kind to those around us that we will be happier, and feel more accomplished than we ever have before. i am aware of the love the Lord has for me and the love that He has for each of the people we come in contact with, if we could only be a little nicer, a little sweeter, and a little kinder to those around us, they would be able to know of the Saviors love for them through our actions. so, make a commitment to be kind. it will make you great!

<3.

happy to you shad!

2011-10-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

shadrach smith! yesterday was your birthday! i was so happy you were turning 2 YEARS OLD!

you are such a big boy now. lots of people wanted to wish you a happy birthday.

talia came to say happy birthday, she was so excited for you!

shayna did a dance to wish you a happy birthday!

leah really hoped you had a great birthday, she liked your green toy story cake a lot!

stephanie wanted to blow you a kiss and say happy birthday! (you met her when you were just a tiny little baby.)

lauren was so happy it was your second birthday, she sang a great birthday song for you!

even kyle came all the way from his farm to say happy birthday to you! (he drives big tractors and trucks all day long.)

and of course i wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

i sure love you a lot! i hope your birthday was fun and that you got lots of exciting toys and presents! i miss you a lot!

happy to you shad!

<3.

first flurries of fall.

2011-10-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

i know. i am just as shocked as you are. snow? in the first week of october? that is exactly what i was thinking. i woke up yesterday morning and got ready for school. i headed off to class. i mentioned to stephanie as we left that it was mizzling. she told me that there was no such thing, but i knew better. anyhow, we left to school. i got to class and it was still mizzling outside. i went in the building and thought nothing of it. i had my class, which was so good! (i love this class!) at the end of class i left the classroom, started walking down the hall, took my phone out to text steph that i was coming to get her (we go to the temple after our class on thursdays) and when i looked up, i saw out the door at the end of the hall ... snow. it was snowing! what??? i didn't think it was very fair at all. and it has been snowing ever since. it isn't really sticking, but i am still not very pleased. i guess that is what i get for living in rexburg. (p.s. as we were walking towards the temple baptistry this little old couple was coming out and the lady said, "welcome to narnia ladies." it was pretty much the funniest thing ever.)

coming out of the temple, you can't really tell that it's snowing, but it is.

scripture of the day:
Proverbs 25:13 As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his masters.

today i am thankful for:
* having a temple so close, where the workers know your name.
* beauty, even if it is cold and unwanted.
* stephanie, and that she goes to the temple with me each week.
* classes that make you want to be better.

<3.

it comes but once a year ...

2011-10-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

no, it is not my birthday! but that would have been a good guess. i am thinking of halloween! it comes but once a year, and we are sure to do some fun pumpkin activities for fhe. my roomies and i are trying to decide what to be, we have a lot of ideas, but can't seem to decide on one. i was just thinking about it and getting excited so thought i would send a little 'pre-halloween shout out' via movie form. :)
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/kPurDjYIvt9DYVMm
i hope that this link works for y'all (you have to be VERY patient while waiting for it to load). sorry you aren't in it mama, i had to make a judgment call, and trust me, it's funnier with daddy, haha.
love you all and hope you have a great rest of the week!

<3.

fútbol americano.

2011-10-03T17:36:00.000-07:00

last friday night
an original play
starring janaya (J) and lauren (L)

L: "we need to be productive tonight."
J: "yeah we do, i have so much spanish to get done."
L: "i have a few tests i need to study for."
J: "plus it's conference this weekend, so we have less time than usual to get everything done."
L: "we HAVE to be productive tonight."
J: "so what's the plan?"
L: "let's go get a pizza, eat it at the park, soak in some sun and fresh air, then come home and get to work."
J: "okay, let's do it!"

J&L drive to little ceasars

J: (to worker) "we would like the meal deal with a pepperoni pizza please."
L: (to J) "do you want rootbeer or orange soda?"
J: (to L) "the orange isn't caffeine free."
L: (to J) "okay, rootbeer it is."
J: (to worker) "do you have cups"

J gets cups from worker, L grabs soda and pizza

Both: "thanks"

J&L leave restaurant and get into car

L: "do you want to go to the park that is less busy?"
J: "good thinking"

J&L drive to smith park

(while getting out of car):
L: "so, after we are done eating we have to ..."
J: "do you hear that?"
L: "yeah, is that ..."
J: "A FOOTBALL GAME!!!"

J&L give each other 'the stare" (if you are wondering what this is, just think of a time when you and another person both wanted to do something, that you maybe weren't supposed to be doing, so you stare at each other as if to ask, "can we?" that is 'the stare')

i think the rest of this story is pretty much self explanatory.

that is right y'all. instead of being good hard-working college students on friday night lauren and i went to a high school football game. it was so much fun. we felt like complete dorks, and yet, at the same time, we felt like we were pretty cool. after i have thought about it more, i think the latter is true. what can i say? i love me some live fútbol americano! (and yes, i do keep saying fútbol americano to show that my spanish has not suffered from this night of ruckus.)

football games are getting fancy ... hand stamps instead of tickets. :)

the field ... the lights ... the crowd

getting ready to play some fútbol americano

scripture of the day:
Psalms 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

today i am thankful for:
* an institute teacher who gave a speech about how all work and no play is a waste of the college experience so that i felt a little better about ditching my college work for a high school football game.
* living prophets and apostles who lead and guide me in this day.
* lauren. it has been so much fun getting to be her roommate these past semesters, and we always have so much fun together!

<3.

cake redemption.

2011-10-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

so lauren is a culinary minor, and this semester she is taking a cake decorating class. she is learning really fast. it makes me miss the times i spent with mama and sica when we did our cake decorating class. that was a ton of fun! (not to mention i was pretty good at it too:) anyways, last week she turned in her first cake. it was really cute, she made it for our fhe brothers.

i love the 4 little flower things right under the big flower!

it says, "we love 301." they live in apt 301 and that is why that makes sense. well, after she turned it in and got her grade we took it over to the boys. they were pretty excited. took a picture of it and then dug in. we had to save a piece and take it home for stephanie. so she got some. us girls had just eaten and weren't really in the mood for cake so only the boys ate it. we hung out with them for a while and just had fun. then we went home. no sooner had we gotten home than stephanie tore into her piece, and no sooner did she take a bite than she spat it back out. lauren was confused. so lauren tasted the cake, a look of horror and disgust crossed her face. so i took a bite. the cake was really gross. i don't know what it was or how to describe it, but if cake can expire, than i swear that is what this cake had done. it was not good at all. lauren was humiliated. all of those boys had eaten that cake, all of it, and they hadn't said anything. the next time we saw them, we brought it up. they all admitted that the cake was gross, but said they didn't want to hurt her feelings so they just ate it and didn't say anything. well, lauren vowed to get cake redemption! her second cake came around. she decorated it very masculinely, seeing as her first cake was a little girly, and we made sure to cut a tiny piece out of the back and try it before delivering it. needless to say after she turned it in for her grade she brought it home and i made a little sign to put near the lake.

very manly.

what a perfect little sign. :)

lake redemption (for cake redemption). we took it over to the boys. they were a little hesitant, but tried it anyways. success!! they ate the entire thing, and we joined them. we had a fun night with them and hung out and talked. i love our fhe boys this semester! they were our friends before too, but now i feel like we just have an extra bond with them, and its fantastic! they are so great and i am excited for the rest of the semester with them. (and for the rest of the cakes that are sure to find their way to our house or their house during the semester).

scripture of the day:
Alma 36:24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

today i am thankful for:
* an awesome bunch of fhe boys!
* talents and abilities that help us help others.
* learning.
* patriarchal blessings.

<3.

lets swap.

2011-09-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

so, last monday we had our ward opening social! haha, this usually isn't very exciting, we eat some food, meet some people, and the most important event, we get put into our fhe groups. this semester they decided to make it a little bit more exciting than just shouting out "nauvoo ### is with brooklyn ###" so the saturday before people came around and asked three people in each apt some random type questions. and they did the same for the boys. and then they typed them up, gave them to the apt you were to be in an fhe group with and made you run around the gym trying to figure out which group was yours by asking the boys (or girls, if you were a boys apartment) if any of them had answered the answers on your sheet. (sorry for that really bad explanation of what happened, i'm not sure there is a simple way to explain it. haha.) but so they called our apartment and we got our paper and so i read it ...
1. This boys car is a 1996 mustang.
2. This boy wishes he could make a career out of living in the woods.
3. This boy is a social work major.
and instantly, i knew. 1. buddy, 2. zach, 3. matt ..... we were with the same fhe boys we had last semester. what? i mean, don't get me wrong, we love these boys! but, it is just fun to get a new fhe group, and get to spend time with people you haven't already spent every monday in a semester with. so, needless to say, we were a little bummed. how in the world had this happened? when we got home from the activity we decided to try our hand at getting a new group. we didn't think it would ever happen, but we decided to try anyways. we started off by visiting one of the fhe coordinators, who informed us that she actually had nothing to do with assigning fhe groups, and that she thought the bishopric did all of that. so, we pondered, and pondered and decided our best course of action was to call brother kuhns, the second counselor. now, we decided on brother kuhns because it is a well known fact that, we are his favorites. :) we decided that all of a sudden we had a pretty good chance of this actually happening. so we called him on up and he informed us that it was JUST THE BISHOP who put together the fhe groups. hopes shattered! we thought for sure that bishop was going to tell us to just suck it up and accept the will of the Lord. we prepared ourselves for disappointment. three days later we get a phone call. from brother kuhns. he tells us he did his best, and that he warned us not to get our hopes up (we were set for failure) but it was okay if we'd gotten them up because bishop changed our group!!!! what?!? seriously?!?! we could not believe it! we were so happy. so we swapped out nauvoo 304 for nauvoo 301! i am pretty excited! i think it is going to be an excellent semester for fhe!

scripture of the day:
Jacob 5:59 And this I do that, perhaps, the roots thereof may take strength because of their goodness; and because of the change of the branches, that the good may overcome the evil.

today i am thankful for:
* change.
* blessings from the Lord.
* bishopric members who do their best to help you.

<3.

time for change?

2011-09-26T14:48:00.001-07:00

so, first day of school i am sitting in my d&c class, listening to my teacher teach. everything he said was so powerful. everything he taught made me feel so ... excited. as i sat there watching him teach i thought to myself, "that would be the most amazing job." and then from somewhere else i heard someone say, "you could do that." i didn't even think anything of it. i went on with my day. my last class that day was one of my MAJOR major classes and i sat there the whole time thinking to myself ... i don't want to do this. this does not sound like what i want to be doing or teaching. but, i just tried to suck it up and keep going. but, the rest of the day i kept thinking back to my d&c class. i could not get it out of my mind. then, tuesday, i woke up and headed to my classes. my second class was another MAJOR major class and again, i sat there feeling so bad, feeling like everything they were talking about were things that i didn't want to teach or do. what? what was this? where was this feeling coming from? i was so completely confused. and that d&c class kept coming to my mind, and those words, "you could do that," wouldn't leave my mind. so i did some pondering, called my mother, went and spoke to some people, and wednesday i dropped most of my classes and got all new ones. that's right people. in the course of two days. and with much thought, much deliberation, some worries, and a whole lot of faith ... i changed my major. i am no longer a family & consumer science education major, but i am in fact a university studies major with a minor in home & family, general education, and spanish ... and the end goal? i hope to be a seminary teacher. i am taking an intro to teaching seminary class and i must admit, it is completely amazing. i love it so much, and every day i go to class and leave feeling like i am exactly where i am supposed to be. i am really happy about the change, even though it popped out of no where and completely threw me off guard. looks like sometimes the plans we make for ourselves aren't the plans the Lord has for us.

scripture of the day:
Psalms 37: 4-5 Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

today i am thankful for:
* prayer.
* promptings from the holy ghost.
* powerful teachers.

<3.

well, its that time again ...

2011-09-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

i'm sure you have all been waiting with baited breathe for the first blog of the semester. if that's the case then you most likely passed out a long time ago due to lack of oxygen. sorry it's taken so long!! this semester has already been so crazy, yet so wonderful! i arrived in rexburg officially on the 8th of september. lauren and i moved in (most of our stuff). we had some things in a storage unit belonging to our former roommate caty, now known as the beautiful mrs. jolley. we got all that we could unpacked. visited the grocery store. and met one of the new roomies. i didn't get my room fully unpacked and set up until sunday, and between thursday and saturday the rest of our old/new roomies showed. we have a great bunch this semester! i am excited! as per usual, here are some photos of my room:

the letter picture i made last semester.

in previous semesters i have roomed with stephanie, but we decided to change it up a little and so i am rooming with lauren this semester. we decided our room needed a little more pizazz and rearranged the whole thing. i really like it the way that it is right now. it's different, but works really well actually. i am really excited for the rest of this semester and hope it is as good as i think it will be!

scripture of the day:
Isaiah 19:20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.

today i am thankful for:
* good friends and roomies.
* an amazing ward where i know people and feel comfortable.
* cool weather that isn't too cold yet.

<3.

friend? ... or foe?.

2011-07-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

last night for fhe we decided to play some water balloon volleyball, however, i am pretty sure by the lack of room at all well know parks that every other fhe group at byu-i decided to do the same. we finally remembered that we knew of a tiny little park, park saint park, hidden away in a quiet little neighborhood, so we headed over there. luckily for us, we had the space we needed to play the game. this park is more a small field than a real park, but they do have 2 swings, a really old metal slide, and, my favorite, an old metal merry go round. after we were done with the water balloon volleyball some of us decided to re-live our childhood and take a whirl on the merry go round.

not the actual merry go round.

we were all doing great and loving it. one of our fhe brothers decided that we were not going quite as fast as we should be going and told us to hold on because he was going to make it go as fast as he could. so we all took a tight grip and there he went. let me tell you, he wasn't kidding when he said he was going to go fast. it was super fast. after a little bit of him twirling us he stopped and i thought, here we go, just ride it out to the end, so i loosened my grip a little and began to enjoy myself when i feel a sudden burst of speed, he was pushing again. as soon as i felt that little burst of speed i knew it, i was going to be coming off of that merry go round, and not at all in a pleasant way. my tuck and roll method wasn't quite as effective as i had hoped. i ended up having my head and shoulder scrape along the ground for a little bit. (my roommate caty described it like this, "you know in the movie cool runnings, when the bobsled flips over and the sledders heads are all scraping along the ice and they look all bent funny and you are sure they are going to break something, thats what you looked like, only your head was in gravel." needless to say, as i sat up from my glorious fall my entire fhe group surrounded me asking if i was okay. i was. i really was. i mean, i could tell that it hurt, and that i was probably scraped up, but other than that, i was good. they weren't sure i was telling the truth, but i was fine. all in all, i left wondering if merry go rounds were really as fun as i had always remembered them, or if really, they were death traps waiting to happen. after a little more time of being able to ponder it i've decided, as long as you don't let derek spin you really fast (or know he is going to double spin and not single spin) and you maybe choose a really good spot where you aren't likely to slip off, merry go rounds are still pretty much wonderful. after everyone had finally decided i was okay derek did his best to make the situation less awkward by saying, "who wants me to spin them next?" seeing as i am a good sport i replied, "me!" only thing is, i really did kinda wanna go again, but of course my roomies wouldn't let me. boring. haha. all in all i was glad that i was okay and that i didn't break my neck or anything. i'm always grateful when the Lord looks out for me and keeps me safe.

scripture of the day:

Proverbs 29:25 The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.

today i am thankful for:

* protection.

* merry go rounds.

* priesthood holders who were ready, worthy, and willing to give me a blessing if necessary.

* friends who care about me.

* that i didn't end up with a bald spot on my head.

* ice water.

<3.

swiss steak?.

2011-06-29T18:04:00.002-07:00

so, i called my mom the other day and asked for a recipe for "that stuff you sometimes make on sunday." well, she told me what it was called, but i still don't know. so, i got the recipe and decided to make it. this is mostly for her because she told me to let her know how it turned out. so here goes ...

it was delicious! i cooked it up! and it was so tasty! and we put it over some mashed potatoes that i also made. accompanied by some, very delicious, corn on the cob. it was a very tasty sunday dinner. i am becoming quite the cook up here at school. maybe if my momma is nice it will stay that way while i am hope for the 7-week break! here are the pictures!

cooking is fun! its the dishes after that aren't such a happy time. but i am enjoying being able to cook!

scripture of the day:

Acts 14:17 Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

today i am thankful for:

* yummy food.

* roomies who like to eat sunday dinner together.

* momma's, and how they give you tasty recipes to make tasty food.

* revelation.

<3.

birthday bonfire bash.

2011-06-18T01:31:00.000-07:00

so, as it would happen, stephanie and i both share a birthday week. this makes life pretty exciting come our birthdays. we decided to have a birthday bonfire bash to celebrate. my birthday was on Sunday and stephanies on monday, so we decided to have our party on either friday or saturday. after lots of decisioning we decided on friday because there was a school music thing on saturday that a lot of people go to, and we didn't want to be competing with that. so we invited our friends and found a good place and had our BIRTHDAY BONFIRE BASH!

the bonfire.

s'mores.

gabe in the middle of a wink (brandon in the back).

my roomies!!! (minus cathy, she left earlier).

brandon wanted us to carry him around, personally i think he should have been carrying steph and i around seeing as it was our birthday party.

tyler thought it would be smart to cook his hotdog and toast his bun at the same time.

cathy with a s'more.

spencer wore my mitten to roast his stuff because his hand kept getting so hot.

hyrum by the fire.

so ... this picture i decided to put up because my roommates think it is hilarious because apparently i spent the entire night talking to boys only. these two particular boys i didn't meet until that night. they were hyrum's friends and came with him. they were both super nice and funny and i didn't want them to feel awkward or left out so i had to be nice to them, right?? :)

the birthday cards tyler, kyle, and spencer got for stephanie and i.

it was extremely fun! i seriously love all my friends up here so much! they make my life so much better than it would be without them. we all had a blast, and i finally got to enjoy a bonfire in rexburg, next time we will aim higher and get a real big bonfire going out at the sand dunes. or maybe we will just do something else. i hope you all had a fantastic fathers day! i love you all!

scripture of the day:

D&C 98:18 Let not your hearts be troubled; for in my Father's house there are many mansions, and I have prepared a place for you; and where my Father and I am, there ye shall be also.

today i am thankful for:

* awesome friends!

* fantastic roomies!

* my daddy, he is amazing!

* bonfires.

* birthdays.

* boys.

* roommates who go to the temple with me every week!

* friends in classes so you have people to talk to and are able to feel more comfortable and more likely to share.

* rain.

<3.

pajama pants.

2011-06-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

so, the next project that i have finished in my sewing class is a pair of pajama pants. i made them for my roommate lauren. she picked out the fabric and i sewed.

they turned out really cute i think.

scripture of the day:

1 Nephi 16: 2 And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth; and the righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.

today i am grateful for:

* free sewing machines/sergers to use while i am at school.

* friends.

* family.

* following the spirit.

* courage.

<3.

dinner "with" aunt kathy.

2011-05-19T18:13:00.000-07:00

so, everytime that i drive to/from school aunt kathy likes to see me and treat me to dinner/lunch. it is always fun and i enjoy getting to spend time with her. on the way up this last time i was with lauren and hyrum and we still stopped by to deliver some curtains my mom had purchased for kathy. we got there, but kathy was not around, we had not expected to get there so early and neither did kathy. she was off at a church meeting. so we had to be on our way without even getting to see her. it was a bummer. i was pretty excited for her to get to meet some of my friends. well, a few weeks ago i get a card in the mail, and who should it be from? aunt kathy. it said she was sorry she missed me and that she had wanted to treat my friends and i to dinner. it also contained some money which she told me to use to take them out. how sweet is that? it made my day, and lauren and hyrums as well. so, we decided to modify the plan just a little, and instead of us 3 going out to dinner we invited some other people over, and included my roomies and made chicken rolls, broccoli, rice, and brownies with ice cream for dinner/dessert one sunday. we also played cards and then did some mock speed dating and told each other our secrets. it was way fun/ny and the dinner was awesome!

our chicken rolls:

lauren and brandon "praying":

hyrum and i:

six of us at the table:

playing speed uno after dinner:

brandon and caty:

owen and i:

we have kind of been on a kick of actually making real food since then, since it was so delicious. it was a very good dinner and we were all really grateful that aunt kathy made it possible! i love you!

scripture of the day:

James 5:13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

today i am thankful for:

* aunt kathy.

* thoughtful people who put a smile on your face.

* my friends and roommates who are all awesome.

* amazing home teachers/fhe brothers who bless my life and help teach me lessons i need to learn or be reminded of.

* my family.

* the good influence other people can have on me.

* the temple.

* that i didn't really fail my nutrition test, my teacher just used the wrong key.

<3.

spiderman gives hugs.

2011-05-07T12:00:00.001-07:00

so, last night stephanie and i began the night afraid that we were just going to be home alone, all night, on a friday night. well, just as lauren was leaving on her date three of our favorite new boys showed up. danny, adam, and gabe. they came in for a while and we were just talking and having fun, then our favorite old friend, kyle, stopped by. after a while kyle decided he wanted to go to dinner and asked us all to join him. the new boys had all already eaten, but told us we should go. so stephanie and i went to dinner with kyle and the new boys left. when we got home kyle just dropped us off and told us he would be right back. a few minutes later we hear a knock on the door and when we opened it there he stood ... spiderman!

it was pretty hilarious. kyle always tells us that he is spiderman and tries to display his spidey skills anyway he can. we took a picture and talked for a minute before he decided to go delight others with his spiderfulness, but before he left he informed us that, "spiderman gives hugs." and so i got to hug spiderman. then we called danny, gabe, and adam and told them we were back and that if they wanted to come over again they were more than welcome to. they showed up a few minutes later and we watched how to train your dragon. it was funnier than i remembered it. then right when the movie was ending hyrum and brandon (two more new friends) showed up and stayed until a little before curfew. brandon even joined us for roommate prayer and it was pretty hilarious. in the end it was a super fun night and i was glad i stayed home, not alone. ;)

scripture of the day:

D&C 58: 2 For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that keepeth my commandments, whether in life or in death; and he that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven.

today i am thankful for:

* my amazing roommates.

* the temple.

* spiderman.

* boys who come over just because they want to.

* boys who invite you to go places.

* laughing.

* giving.

<3.

i'm a natural.

2011-05-05T13:56:00.001-07:00

this semester i am taking 7 classes for a total of 16 credits. when i have told people these numbers i have gotten responses such as ...

"are you crazy?!?"

"are you trying to kill yourself?"

"seriously?"

"you've obviously never heard about 'not running faster than ye are able' ..."

now, i didn't really think this was THAT many classes. i mean, i know it is more classes than i'm used to, but it seemed like a reasonable schedule to me. well, i must say, it is A LOT of work, but so worth it. i love taking classes that actually pertain to my major. they just seem more exciting. my schedule looks like this:

my monday's and wednesday's are pretty crazy, but the rest of the week is rather nice. i would have to say that of all these classes "clothing construction 1" is my favorite. i just call it sewing, it's an easier name. our first assignment (to help us get used to using the machines) was to make a pillowcase. i must admit that although my grandmother was an avid sewer, and my mother has sown quite a few of her own projects in my life, i am pretty much positive that i have never sown anything before this class. i was the "slow" kid in the class the day that she was showing us how to thread the machine and get the thread on the bobbin. i felt pretty silly, but after she showed me how i caught on pretty quickly. well, we had a total of 2 1/2 days to cut and sew our pillowcases. on the 1/2 day i did all of my cutting and then i sewed the entire thing on day 1. my teacher was checking out my pillowcase once i was finished and staring at me, looking (and sounding) rather astonished (probably because of my originally lacking skills) said, "you're a natural." i really wasn't sure what that meant, but now i do. "you're a natural" is teacher code for, "you finished so quick and did so well that now i am going to make you do twice as much work as everyone else in the class." haha, that is right. i alone "got to" make two pillowcases instead of just one. that was really okay though, i find that i rather enjoy sewing. it is pretty fun, and pillowcases are easy enough that they are actually relaxing to make. my two pillowcases are different from each other, but both wonderful. here they are:

my first one:

the red looking part is actually pretty orange but you can't tell from these pictures and, the second one:

the part that looks orange in these pictures is really quite yellow, i guess my camera isn't the best. so what do you think? am i a natural? either way i am pretty sure sewing is going to be my favorite class this semester!

scripture of the day:

"A temple is a retreat from the vicissitudes of life, a place of prayer and meditation providing an opportunity to receive inner peace, inspiration, guidance, and, frequently, solutions to the problems that vex our daily lives. A temple is a place where the divine spark in man, or the infinite in man, can seek the infinite in God." -Franklin D. Richards, "Happiness and Joy in Temple Work," Ensign, Nov 1986, 70.

today i am thankful for:

* the temple, and how close i live to one both in rexburg and at home.

* worthy priesthood holders in my ward who go to the temple at 6am so that we sisters can do baptisms.

* music, i have been trying to integrate my playlist of "love songs" into the regular music scene in our apartment and it is making people a bit more peaceful.

* my wonderful roommates!

* kyle and tyler, they are so great!

<3.

power cleaning.

2011-04-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

today as i was about to start my homework my roommate got a text from a certain young man she likes. it said that he was going to the gym and she should come on over. well, of course she wanted to go, but like any girl, she didn't want to have to go alone. so the puppy dog eyes came out as well as the bargaining and pleading. she wanted to go and lift weights with him but i really did not. now i am not sure if it is apparent to anyone besides myself, but i'm not much of the "lifting weights type". so after lots of bargaining about not having to do sit-ups and not having to go dancing with her at a later date and such i agreed to go if our other roommate agreed to go. so we all got ready and went to the gym. my roommate was very good at teaching us what to do and helping us understand, and i must say, i did some things i never really thought were possible for me to do. it was nice. we did see the boy. he talked to us for a while, but mostly did his own thing. however, we met this guy there, he was really helpful too. he kept coming and telling us how to do things we didn't understand and had funny ways/sayings to help us remember what came next like, "then smell what's for dinner". so i guess the weight room isn't as scary as i thought it was going to be. the last thing that my roomie showed us how to do was power clean. now, i realize that by the name it sounds like we just did a whole lot of cleaning in not very much time, but this is not the case. i found this description of power cleaning online, "The Power Clean Movement. The Power Clean consists of 2 pulls. 1st Pull: pull the barbell from the floor to your knees. The 1st pull is similar to a Deadlift and is a slow movement. 2nd Pull: pull the barbell from your mid-thighs to your shoulders by extending your hips. The 2nd pull is an explosive movement." i would also like to add that on the 2nd pull you hop a little bit in order to get the momentum to get the barbell up to your shoulders. this is a picture i found that basically shows what your doing.

i felt pretty stupid trying to do all these things, but i was also pretty proud that i actually did them. i will definitely go back again, but i think i am going to need some time to recover first. i am so sore all over. my arms and legs feel like jelly, but it was pretty fun.

scripture of the day:

Mosiah 4:27 And see that all these things are done in wisdom and in order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

today i am thankful for:

* roommates who make you try new things and explain things over and over again until you understand.

* nice guys in the gym who don't make you feel stupid when you don't know what your doing.

* an old teacher that knew all three of us roommates and took the time to stop and talk to us.

* my last class got out 10 minutes early and the rain didn't start to pour until i got home.

* cupcakes.

<3.

choose a dyeing technique.

2011-04-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

around 730 last night i got a call from hyrum. he was bored, which was okay, because so were we. he was wanting to tie dye some shoes/slippers he had and wondered if we would like to join him on this adventure. of course we were happy to help. lauren had some laundry going so about an hour later we went and picked hyrum up and went to the store. we got some Rit dye

(we got red yellow and blue), and hyrum got himself some miracle whip. we also ran into an old fhe brother, dallon,

and got to talk to him for a minute which was fun. then we came back to our apt and started the process, kind of, we were confused, i cannot recall ever tie dyeing before, and hyrum didn't really know what to do, so it took us a good 45 minutes before we actually started. while reading the instructions on the box step 4 said "choose a dyeing technique" and for some reason in my mind i imagined a room full of people sitting at desks checking off on a piece of paper which "dyeing technique" they would prefer, things like ... jumping off a bridge, falling into a well, food poisoning. it made me laugh, and then i had to tell lauren and hyrum and they too found it funny. then we got everything set and rolled up our shirts and prepared the dye. hyrum ended up dying two shirts and his slippers, i dyed one shirt, and lauren tried dyeing some socks. we realized, too late, that we were supposed to have some sort of squirter to put the dye in to squirt on the items, so we had to improvise and use a cup with a built in straw.

it was super fun and i'm pretty sure we just laughed the entire time. needless to say it was a fun night and i am grateful for old and new friends who think i'm funny and laugh at my weird thoughts and dumb jokes.

scripture of the day:

Omni 1:26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.

today i am thankful for:

* being completely moved in to my apartment.

* people who invite you to do fun things with them.

* stephanie got here safe.

* i still have a few days before school starts.

* my car.

* good music that makes your home feel peaceful.

* life.

<3.

settled.

2011-04-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

well, first off, after two days of driving i arrived safely in rexburg today. my driving companions were both quite wonderful! i was grateful to have them both with me. i am finally all unpacked and settled. i am grateful to be back in rexburg but it is also a little weird, or surreal. i do love rexburg though. it started raining right after lauren and i got all of our stuff moved in, so that was nice of the rain to wait. i am pretty excited to be back. caty got here a few hours after lauren and i and it stopped raining long enough for us to get her stuff inside too. stephanie gets here tomorrow and then we will just be waiting on the two new roomies. i like my room a lot.

stephanie and i got the front room this time, and i have decided that i rather enjoy it, although i do tend to just stare out the window watching people come and go. i'm excited for a new semester and a new adventure!

scripture of the day:

d&c 6: 10 Behold thou hast a gift, and blessed art thou because of thy gift. Remember it is sacred and cometh from above -

today i am thankful for:

* rain, and also the lack there of sometimes.

* hyrum and lauren.

* picture of the temple and of Jesus that invite the spirit into my room.

* boys, and their knowledge of things that i don't know about.

<3.

the things of my soul.

2011-04-13T15:50:00.001-07:00

last night i went to my last RS activity for the grandview ward for 3 months. we were making journals. they gave each of us a "composition notebook" and then we chose 4 pieces of scrapbook paper (2 matching and 2 matching) . then we traced and cut and glued and embellished. i love getting to go to these things with my mom and my sister. we are crafty together. maybe not as crafty as each of us wishes, but it's easy to be crafty when someone else gets everything and sets everything up for you and all you have to do is show up and make it. it was fun. i really liked how my journal ended up. i am not so much for the embellishing. it seems far too unnecessary for me. jessicas was super cute but not around when i took the photo so you're just going to have to hope and pray she puts it up herself. this is mine and my moms.

this is the one thats mine.

they all turned out really cute. when i woke up and saw it today i decided that i really like it. i should have cheated and made two! i am always amazed by the things people think of to make, and usually grateful too. i love having cute things that look like me and fit my personality. i like to be unique, and what is more unique than a handcrafted journal? we also talked a lot about journals and the importance of keeping journals and shared things from different peoples journals. i wish i was better at keeping a journal, but sad to say, i am not. maybe that is something i will work on this coming semester!!

scripture of the day:

2 nephi 4:15 And upon these I write the things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the plates of brass. For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my children.

today i am thankful for:

* being part of the relief society.

* friends who take the time to come and say goodbye to me.

* time.

* the piano and good music.

* my family.

<3.

white cork tree.

2011-04-12T16:21:00.000-07:00

about two years ago i was really struggling trying to figure out some things, and trying to figure out how to change some of the things and patterns I had gotten in to. i decided to go and sit at the Mesa Arizona Temple grounds and just spend an hour or two praying about the answers to all the many questions and hopes i had piling up. as i sat there i just pondered everything i had been thinking of. about thirty minutes after showing up an older man came over and started talking to me, just normal things, like, "how is your sunday?" "isn’t the Temple lovely today?" "this is such a great place to be." and then, right when i thought he was going to leave, he turned around and said, "i feel like i should tell you a story." and so he told me this story about cork trees, and how cork trees are brown, but, ever so rarely, for some reason or another, a cork tree will grow, and instead of brown cork, it will have white cork. he told me how white cork trees are extremely rare, but that there was one on the Mesa Temple grounds. and then right before he left he looked me square in the eyes and said, “every time i feel like there is something in my life that i need to change, i come here and look at that cork tree, and think to myself, ‘if that cork tree can change its molecular structure to come out a different color, then i can change this small thing about me!!'" that was such a tender mercy for me at that time. it was exactly the answer i needed and was looking for. well, now every time i go to the Mesa Temple i can't help but walk over to that tree and remember this experience.

and every time before i leave that tree i say to myself, "if you can change your molecular structure to come out a different color, than surely i can change whatever it is that i need to change in my life." needless to say, i now have a deep love and appreciation for white cork trees and the messages and insights we receive by going to the house of the Lord.

scripture of the day:

1 Nephi 18:3 And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things.

today i am thankful for:

* tender mercies of the Lord that stick with us for years to come.

* the opportunity that i have to be so close to a temple whether i am at school or at home.

* people who follow the promptings of the spirit.

<3.

cake pops.

2011-04-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

for a few weeks now jessica and i have been discussing how we both wanted to try and make cake pops. well, tonight my family is having a little going away dinner for me, so we decided this would be the perfect occasion to make them for. so yesterday we got together after church and had at it. the premise of the whole idea is rather simple, bake a cake, any cake you want really. then after you bake it, and let it cool, crumble it up into fine pieces in a large bowl. then mix (mush) it together with one can of frosting. again, really it could be any kind you like. then roll into little round balls and place them on a cookie sheet with wax paper on it. then place a stick into them and let them cool in the freezer for about a half hour. melt up your chocolate and then dip your cake pop into the chocolate and decorate any way you want. simple simple, right? mostly. jessica and i had a hard time getting the cake balls to stay on the sticks when dipping them. they need to be very frozen onto the stick. also, the chocolate dries so fast that it is hard to decorate them with any sprinkles or anything before the chocolate dries. we ended up just dipping them in either a brown or white chocolate and then drizzling them with the other color. they really are quite cute that way.

it was pretty time consuming, but fun to do together. i'm not sure how people end up getting them to look like little characters or such.

we had a hard enough time just getting them to look nice. but it was a fun little thing to do and made for some good laughs.

scripture of the day:

1 nephi 8:12 And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit.

today i am thankful for:

* jessica. i love spending time with her and am so grateful to have her as my sister.

* fun ideas to do.

* ovens and freezers and not having to bake things over a fire or cool them in a stream.

* people who share their talents with the world.

<3.

what time is lunch?

2011-04-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

today i woke up and went into my parents room to find my mom and jayce. we were talking a little and right when i was about to head to the bathroom jayce asks me, "so what time are you taking me to lunch?" needless to say i was a little surprised. i asked him, "where i am going to be taking you to lunch at?" to which he replied, "famous dave's." so after further discussion about the time, and an invitation for our mother to join, us we decided we were all going to lunch.

as you can tell from the clock, it was "bar-b-que time"! it was pretty fun. our waiter was "famous chaz." while sitting waiting for our food our mother decided she could be the official decorator for the restaurant because she owned a few of the items they had decorating the walls. the food was rather delicious, although i was sad that both my mother and brother got a corn bread muffin with their meal and i did not. i love me some tasty cornbread. they also have about a million kinds of bbq sauce, all of which are very delicious.

it was a fun time. i love getting to spend time with my family. we are a pretty silly bunch, but it makes life exciting.

scripture of the day:

1 nephi 16:31 And it came to pass that I did slay wild beasts, insomuch that I did obtain food for our families.

today i am thankful for:

* fun ideas, even if it means i have to pay for lunch.

* a family that is silly.

* hugs.

<3.

time flies when you're having fun.

2011-04-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

i guess i have just been having too much fun not being in school because it seems like the time i had at home has flown by! it feels like just yesterday i came home for my long break and now that break is almost over. i head back up to idaho in exactly one week! i am a tiny bit nervous, a little sad, and extremely excited!!! we are getting two new roommates and i am always nervous about new roomies! i am sure they will be magically wonderful though! i'm a little sad to leave home. i always am. it's weird to feel like you have two lives, but that is exactly how i feel. i feel like this is my family life and at school is my real life. weird? yes, but hard to explain. i am super excited to see everyone that i haven't seen for the last 4 months!! i have missed them all so much! as i mentioned, i leave one week from today. thursday the 14th. i will be heading up to salt lake the first day and then going the rest of the way to rexburg on friday. for my past trips to and from rexburg a family member has had to drive with me one way and fly (either to or from idaho) the other way. this time however, i have friends to accompany me on the journey!! lauren's family just moved down here in february so she now lives in arizona. meaning when she flies down after the end of the semester she will need a ride back up. this works perfectly for me and her. now we can be arizona-idaho driving buddies! also, i have a new friend, hyrum. i met him here while off track for the semester and oddly enough he goes to byu-idaho too. it's funny. i have met maybe 2 people from arizona while at school all 3 semesters i have been there so far, and i came home and i met 2 people who go to byu-i while home. what are the odds? well, hyrum has decided he too would enjoy to ride up with me so now i have two friends to ride up to idaho with! it is going to be a fun trip!! anyways, hopefully while i am at school i will be better at getting up some exciting blogs for your reading pleasure. i feel like i always blog better at school than when at home. so look for some new and exciting things for the future. i love you all!

scripture of the day:

D&C 27:1 Listen to the voice of Jesus Christ, your Lord, your God, and your Redeemer, whose word is quick and powerful.

today i am thankful for:

* a car that gets me too and from idaho.

* a living prophet of the Lord.

* friends that make me smile, whether in idaho or arizona.

* the fact that i am not taking finals right now like many of my friends in idaho are.

* a piano.

* the ability i have to be happy.

<3.

grandma chic.

2011-03-30T18:58:00.000-07:00

so, recently i decided that i wanted to change my style. i'm not sure i have really had a distinct style before. mainly a little bit of this and a little bit of that. when i was in high school my style was probably "dark goddess" i always wore black. always. it was my thing. then when i got to college for the first time (at MCC) i changed a little to "soccer mom" then i changed a little bit more to "punk rocker soccer mom" and then while at byu-idaho i have kinda been stuck in the "random" zone. well. i decided that i had had enough random in my life, and that i wanted a style. one of my very own. so i went to some stores. started to see what i like. and decided on a style. i call it "grandma chic." now, one might ask, "janaya, what makes an outfit grandma chic?" and i would have to say, i don't really know. the colors have a lot to do with it, but that "chic" at the end means you can still have non-grandma colors as long as the overall ensemble is grandma. haha. i am thoroughly enjoying my new style. it makes me smile. i don't really have any pictures of these styles yet but i will work on getting some up in the future. i can show you a picture of one of the cardigans i bought that i stole offline, and hopefully that will help you to understand what "grandma chic" is.

i got all of the inspiration for my new style from this cardigan. i am excited to feel like i have a style that is a little nerdy, but also a lot wonderful! look for a grandma chic picture blog to come shortly. i love you all!

scripture of the day:

1 Nephi 2:15 And my father dwelt in a tent.

you all have jayce to thank for this wonderful scripture of the day, he is the one who recommended it. :)

today i am thankful for:

* things that are a little grandma, and a little chic, and a lot cute.

* my little brother and the example he is to me.

* wholesome movies that make me smile. :)

* people to talk to.

<3.

i love to see the temple.

2010-11-05T16:53:00.000-07:00

for any of you who got home taught in october you will know that the theme of the home teaching was the temple. my roommates and i all have separate home teachers, but we usually end up sitting in on each others home teaching lessons so i got to hear about the temple and its importance 3 times last month. it was so great and made me realize that i really needed to go to the temple. now ... dont judge me ... but in the three semesters that i have been here i had not et been to the temple here to do baptisms. well, jill and i decided to go wednesday morning. we got up super early (because i had class at 9) and we went and did baptisms. it was so wonderful. i really do love going to the temple. it really changes the way i look at life. i was so happy all day long. i just wanted to do stuff, homework, scriptures, fun, i just wanted to do all of it. i was so happy. well wednesday night my roommate caty mentions that she would like to go to the temple and did we think she should go on thursday or friday. i remembered that my classes from friday were both canceled and quickly voiced my opinion for friday. so, today i got to sleep in and then around noon caty and i went to the temple. i have never been to the temple twice in a week in my whole life but i was so happy to go. i absolutely love the temple. it is such a blessing in my life. i hope to be able to keep up going at least once a week for the rest of the time i am here. i know that it will be such a good thing and really help me to be happier and more successful. i challenge all of you to take the time to make it to the temple this next week. nothing can substitute for the joy you get from going to the temple. i love you all!

scripture of the day:
Mosiah 2: 6 And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them.

today i am thankful for:

* being able to go to the house of the Lord and do baptisms for the dead.

* roommates who go to the Temple with me.

* the ability and opportunity i have to be at this school and the blessing it has been in my life.

* a car that allows me the opportunity to serve others by driving them places they need to be.

* medicine that helps those who are sick to feel better (steph has been sick).

<3.

the great nerf gun attack of 2010.

2010-11-03T23:19:00.000-07:00

a few days ago jill went to the store and returned home with a nerf ball gun.

we have been having a lot of fun have mini nerf gun wars. all the boys that have been over to visit are very impressed and jealous of the nerf gun. well, today after class jill and i were bored and decided the perfect way to perk up the day was to have a nerf gun war. so we were off to the store. we bought an automatic tommy 20 nerf gun

for myself to use in this fight and then two smaller nerf guns

for the other people we fought to use. we also bought some cheap sale halloween candy to put in little baggies for our home teachers and fhe brothers. we got home and prepared the candy bags and wrote everyone little notes of appreciation and love ;) then we decided who to have the nerf gun war with. so we head over to nauvoo (all our boys live in the nauvoo apts) and we get to the third floor. jill and i hide our nerf guns on the floor to the side of the door and knock. tyler and kyle were very excited to receive their candy bags. then i told them there was an even more exciting present. i pull the two nerf guns out and they were super excited. they were pretty much like little boys getting nerf guns for christmas. then jill and i grabbed our nerf guns and we attacked! they were running around and trying to hide. it was so fun. then we just hung out with them for the next 45 minutes. i really love my home teachers. they are pretty much my brothers away from home and i am so happy when they do fun things with me and spend time with me. it was a pretty wonderful wednesday evening. :) i love nerf gun attacks, what a happy way to brighten your day and have fun.

scripture of the day:

1 Peter 3: 12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers.

today i am thankful for:

* boys who think it is fun to get attacked in their own home, and not annoying :)

* jill! i have missed her as my roommate. i love having fun with her and being silly.

* having friends in my classes so that i can talk to someone.

* prayer, it has been such a blessing in my life these past few days.

<3.

toy story 3.

2010-11-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

back in june i went to see toy story 3 for my birthday with megan and stephanie, however, if you remember from my post the movie died 30 minutes in and i never got to finish it. well, today my roommate went out and rented toy story 3 and we decided to watch it later that night. my home teacher tyler heard from my other home teacher kyle that we were going to be watching it so he asked if we could watch it after his soccer game so that he could come and watch it with us. so we decided to wait. we got bored when thinking about waiting and so we decided to go to his soccer game and cheer him on. it wasn't too cold, and it was so fun. so after the soccer game we went home and got ready for the movie. tyler came over and we were set to go.

jill, lauren, and i were on the big couch and we were all very in to the movie and we were all huddled, snuggled, and cuddled together and kept gasping, and oooo'ing and awww'ing. it was probably really funny. tyler just laughed at us the entire time. i felt like such a girl, haha, but it was so fun and i loved the movie! my most favorite part was probably mexican buzz light-year :) overall it was a good night and i was so happy to finally get to see the entire movie! (oh, and yes, i did almost cry at the end of the movie). i love fun wholesome movies that everyone can get into and enjoy!

scripture of the day:
Moroni 7: 19 Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ.

today i am thankful for:
* wholesome, fun, and interesting movies.
* ward activities that will come to pass and be wonderful :) (look for a blog saturday or sunday to explain this one;)
* my most amazing home teachers!!!!
* roommates who are willing to bundle up and go spend time with me supporting the boys in our lives!
* being a girl and being able to gasp in movies and have people think its funny, yet normal. :)

<3.

the night before hallows' eve.

2010-10-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

well, not really, but two nights before hallows' eve. friday night my roomies and i were sitting around not doing much when we decided to make up costumes and go to a party just for the heck of it. so the creativity began. lauren and jill already had their outfits. lauren was a cat and jill a nerd. i decided on a cowgirl when lauren said she had a cowgirl hat. then we decided that caty could easily be a bee. we ended up running out of really great ideas so shelby ended up being a nerd with jill. (steph was off somewhere with her brother). then we all got dressed up in a hurry and headed off to the party. none of us were technically invited to this party but one of the boys in our ward set his status to say that they were having a party in their lounge and that anyone who wanted to come was invited. so we headed out and we got to the party and walked in and saw we were the only ones who had bothered to dress up, it was embarrassing for about .2 seconds but then everyone start clapping and cheering for us and apparently we were a big hit. so we went in and played some foosball. boys kept coming over and talking to us, which was fun. my cap gun was a huge hit. boys were really impressed by it and kept coming over and shooting it off to scare people. we also played some pool and danced a little. we met new friends austin and patrick. we left kinda early because jill and lauren had planned on going to idaho falls to go to dr. slaughters, and then to a scary movie. but by the time we got home it was a little too late for them to make it on time. so we ended up getting steph to dress up as a sheriff, not as cool as me though cuz she didn't have a hat. then we all went to sammy's (new restaurant in town). while we were at sammys we told new friends they should come with so they came over and then after our time at sammys we headed over to the cheap theater to watch a scary movie. we got a dollar off because we were dressed up, which was so great! so i ended up getting in for $2! we saw devil (watch the preview!) i ended up liking it. i think it was more of a thriller than a scary/horror movie. but then we came home and pretty much went to bed, but it was such a fun great night!

scripture of the day:

Moroni 7: 12-13 Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually. But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.

today i am thankful for:

* fun roommates who are creative and silly.

* really cheap movies so that i can have a fun with my roommates for our halloween celebration.

* fun people who have parties and invite random people to join them.

* my cap gun and what a big hit it is with the boys. :)

* pictures from my roomies cameras. its like i dont even need a camera anymore.

* time to sleep in.

<3.

fhe.

2010-10-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

for fhe on monday we decided to carve pumpkins, seeing as it is the pumpkin carving season. it was one of those activities that i absolutely love and can't wait until i can be at home again and can do fun stuff like that with my family but, i love my byui family this semester so it was so much fun! we got there a little late because we had to go buy some pumpkins. at the store we decided to split up into groups of two and be pumpkin carving teams. stephanie quickly claimed shelby as her partner, soon after jill claimed lauren, so caty and i were left as a team, i was very pleased! caty is so funny, i love her, so i was glad to be her carving partner! we got to the boys house and dawson and kyle were off purchasing a pumpkin themselves. we waited until they got there and then we sang a song (give said the little stream), said a prayer and had a little spiritual thought and then began the festivities. caty and i decided on a werewolf as our design. it was a little more detailed than we thought we could do, but we decided to go for it! and ... it turned out awesome! big papa (our fhe dad) carved their pumpkin, all alone, sometimes brother dallon liked to pretend he was helping, but he wasnt. it was pretty funny. the other 3 boys just bummed around the living room doing strange things, which was also pretty funny. i forgot my camera at home when coming up to school so i keep having to resort to stealing photos off of facebook for you guys to see. these ones are from my "brother" dallon.

all of the carvers as we began the carving process:

big papa carving his pumpkin while holding a knife very dangerously:

the stephanie/shelby team looking cute:

the lauren/jill team being silly:

the janaya/caty team hard at work:

the big papa/dallon team "working":

brothers "mike/kyle" and skyler (sj) decorating the home with halloween costumes:

some carvers and the finished products (man with a mustache, skulls, a werewolf, and an owl on a tree branch):

we had a blast. after we were done carving the pumpkins big papa decided to show us his manly skills and ripped a phone book in half. it was very impressive actually. dallon only had one picture of that up on facebook and it was really bad and blurry so i left it out. but here is one where the boys all covered jill in the ripped pages:

all in all it was a really fun night. i really enjoy fhe this semester. i am pretty sure i have never looked forward to it so much, i cant decide if it is because we have such great fhe brothers or if it is because i am not the fhe mom this semester and dont have to worry about planning activities. its probably a combination of both, but either way i am very happy i love fhe so much!

scripture of the day:
Proverbs 18: 24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

today i am thankful for:
* my daddy. he blesses my life so much and is able to relieve much of the stress i have in my life.
* my family! i decided sometime last week that i missed my family and was going to fix it by writing everyone emails, so i did. i got back replies and it made me so happy to hear about life. i plan on keeping it up!
* the internet. it is amazing to me how quickly you can share things with people. and how easy it is. it is such a blessing to me.
* jackets. it is getting cold here in rexburg and has even snowed a few times (nothings stuck yet) and i am so glad that i have jackets and coats that i can use to layer up.
* insurance discounts. i found a paper in my car from a year ago that i can fill out and send in so that my insurance will be lower, yay!!!
* my byui family! it is so great to know so many wonderful people up here and to feel comfortable talking to them and asking them for anything. i absolutely love it!
* my roommates. they are amazing. i have never loved my roommates so much. we have such fun together and i feel so close to all of them.
* knowledge. i am trying so hard at my chemistry class and i feel like i know so much and then i dont do so hot on the tests, but today in my science foundations class we had an in class group assignment and it had to do with chemistry and i knew all the answers. its nice to know that even though my grade in that class isn't the greatest i still am learning and growing.

<3.>

lessons from the Lord.

2010-10-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

yesterday i was feeling the stress of many things on me at once and i decided to head out to my usual thinking spot. it is a church that is out on one edge of town near some fields. i drove out there, parked the car and then spent a good 25 minutes staring at this one tree trying to figure out why i felt so stressed, and why all the trials in my life were coming at me, and how i was going to get everything done that i needed to. after those first 25 minutes i was still staring at the same tree and the thought popped into my head, "how often do you let what you are focused on determine what you see." i then proceeded to look up and from where i was sitting, and from this spot at the church you are up on a hill and when you look out you can see out over rexburg, sugar city, and st. anthony. it is so pretty and is even the reason that i go to this spot to think. i realized that i have been focusing a little too much on my "woes" and not enjoying all of the blessings that my heavenly father is still giving to me. it was a good lesson, one that i really needed in the moment. i am so grateful for my Savior and the little things He does in my life to help remind me how much He knows and loves me. well, after this i decided to take some pictures to display my experience, so here they are.

the tree.

a little to the right.

more to the right.

seeing further past the tree.

broadening my horizons.

the view that i get to see when sitting and thinking.

up next to the tree.

three photos that show the whole view of why i go to this spot to forget my woes and work through trials.

what a beautiful wonderful lesson from my Heavenly Father. He knows and love me, i am so grateful for that.

scripture of the day:

todays scripture is not really a scripture but some thoughts taken from Elder Uchtdorf's October Conference Talk, 'Of Things That Matter Most' ... "If life and its rushed pace and many stresses have made it difficult for you to feel like rejoicing, then perhaps now is a good time to refocus on what matters most ... We would do well to slow down a little, proceed at the optimum speed for our circumstances, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter the most ... Let us simplify our lives a little. Let us make the changes necessary to refocus our lives on the sublime beauty of the simple, humble path of Christian discipleship - the path that leads always toward a life of meaning, gladness, and peace."

today i am thankful for:

* the blessings the Lord gives me.

* the lessons that i am able to receive through the gift of the spirit.

* a mother who knows.

* friends and family at home who make me feel loved and important.

* smiles from strangers.

* time to study.

<3.

the 2 most handsomest men in the world.

2010-10-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

about three days ago i was going about my business, just doing some homework in the living room and in walks my roomie jill. she is carrying some flowers and i think to myself, "i wish someone got me flowers." she walks around the couch, sits down, and hands them to me. needless to say i started to think my mind powers had grown stronger than i had realized. so i take the flowers and i see this note:

they were from my home teachers. i started smiling from ear to ear like a giddy little girl but i didn't care. i was so happy someone had given me flowers (and the two most handsomest men in the world no less). i am so grateful for my home teachers. i feel like they really care about me and they have been so nice to me. they show up at least once a week just to say hi and see how i am doing. they text me a couple times a week to make sure im having a good day and see if i need anything. it has been such a blessing to have such good home teachers in my life. i really appreciate them. i wanted to let you see them (since you are probably wondering what the two most handsomest men in the world look like) but i have no photos of them, so if you promise not to tell, i stole pictures of them off of facebook and so ... here they are!

tyler

and kyle

and here are my flowers. they really made my day!

thanks kyle & tyler!

scripture of the day:
Enos 1:12 And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires because of thy faith.

today i am thankful for:
* that the 2 most handsomest men in the world care about me enough to bring me flowers and make me feel loved.
* a roommate who lets me use her printer.

* my family.

* lotion. it is unbelievable how quickly the cold can suck all of the moisture out of our body.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 10710.

2010-10-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

i love that the Lord blesses my life! ...
* tonight is night two (yes i know, not too impressive yet) that i have gone to the gym. **
* i am having an easier time sleeping at night and waking up in the morning.
* i am poor which keeps me from eating out, and buying junk food and sugary items.
* my roommates are really encouraging and helpful.
* my book of mormon teacher always has great stories that make me feel the spirit.
* my little brother makes me feel good about myself.
* my lab partner doesnt yell at me or say i am stupid (like we heard from some other lab groups in chem.)
* i am here, and i have been blessed with a body and mind that help me in my life and make me feel important and strong.

** jill and i made the goal to get physically fit together. last night was night one and we walked to the hart (gym) ran on the elliptical for 30 minutes and then walked home. it was good, it has been a long time since i have worked out. then tonight we convinced stephanie and lauren to come with us and we all walked to the hart. then steph and lauren went to bikes and jill and i ran on the elliptical for 45 minutes. after jill and lauren did some ab work. then we all walked home. once we got home we pushed the couches around in the living room and did abs for a while (russian twists, seals, supermans, & the plank) and then we did stretches, and stretched each other. it was wonderful. i feel so loose and stretched out and i loved it. anyways, we have made plans to do this every night and i am really excited about it. it has been really good so far. and since the start of the semester i have lost 20 lbs! which is pretty exciting. i guess thats what happens when you are poor (no sugar and junk) and walk to classes 3 days a week!

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 10610.

2010-10-06T22:20:00.001-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* i feel close to no stress.
* i was able to go to the gym with jill, it was good.
* it didn't rain on my while walking to school.
* i am making new friends each day.
* i feel comfortable with people that i barely know.
* our fhe boys are fun and great.
* my home teachers too are fun and great!
* things are working themselves out.
* my dad has knowledge that helps and blesses my life.
* shad does cute things that make me feel good even if they might be on accident.
* my mom helps relieve my stresses.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 10510.

2010-10-05T22:29:00.000-07:00

my life is blessed by the Lord ...
* i have a father that i know loves me and would do anything for me, and i that i can call him anytime, with any problem and he will help me. he is the perfect example to me of what my Father in Heaven is like.
* the Lord gives me peace and comfort when i need it the most, as long as i turn to Him.
* my roommates are nice and wonderful and understanding. they help me when i need it and i love them for it.
* the boys in my ward are wonderful and always make me laugh and feel welcomed & loved.
* even in the most stressful of days and situations i find people that make me laugh, what a joy and a blessing.
* my foods class had me make chili, which in turn made my lunch and my dinner free.
* i am happy, even among everything.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 10410.

2010-10-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

i love the Lord ...
* fhe was super fun, once again, even though we just played a card game.
* stephanie helped me out with something when i really needed her to, such a blessing.
* i did not have my intro to fcs class which gave me some extra time to study for my chem test.
* walking to school keeps getting easier and easier.
* even though i had a super stressful day i still had fun and laughed, i am so grateful for an apartment of girls that i love and feel comfortable with.
* i know i say it a lot, but my home and family management class was once again amazing! i would call it the best religion class i have ever had ... only ... its not a religion class.
* my little brother talks to me and makes me happy.
* i have what i need when i really need it.
* my testimony and faith in the Lord help me through countless on going trials that would otherwise be impossible to get through.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 10310.

2010-10-03T20:54:00.000-07:00

i can see the hand of the Lord in my life daily ...
* the second day of conference was just as amazing as the first.
* i have roommates who have roommate prayer and all gather together to watch conference.
* i have knowledge from the Lord on how to live my life through scriptures and the prophet.
* i always seem to have time to get the things that i need to done.
* i am able to memorize things i need to.
* i have great friends and roommates.
* i laugh and am happy!

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 10210.

2010-10-02T22:42:00.001-07:00

the hand of the Lord is relevant in my life ...
* first two sessions of conference were amazing!
* we have had so much roommate bonding and it has been so great!
* i woke up in time to wake other roomies so we could all up for conference on time.
* we played wallyball with some fhe boys!
* jill and i went out to idaho falls and i got a gift for shad.
* i got to take a nap.
* i got to hear from one of my favorite people ... TANIA!!!!

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 10110.

2010-10-01T23:42:00.000-07:00

i love to see the Lord working in my life ...
* my chemistry class was cancelled today, so i only had one class and got to sleep in and be able to finish my homework before it.
* tomorrow is conference and i am so excited!

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 93010.

2010-09-30T23:28:00.000-07:00

i love to see the Lord working in my life ...

* my chem lab partner is very nice to me even when i dont understand what is going on.

* i got to all my classes on time.

* jill let me borrow her car to go get my car that i left at the hinckley building.

* my little brother doesnt think my friends are creepy, even if he sometimes should.

* my roommates are fun and make me laugh.

* my roommates made me ice my wrist so it would feel better and explained to me how it is swollen and promised that the extreme burning sensation was normal.

* i laugh everyday.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 92910.

2010-09-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

the hand of the Lord in noticeable in my life ...
* i had real food for lunch.
* i had fun playing wallyball.
* we passed clean checks.
* i got 100% on my lab safety test.
* a little contention going on in the apartment was resolved.
* my home and family management class was amazing, as always!
* i found 2 new favorite songs.
The Only Exception by Paramore
&
The Man Who Can't Be Moved by The Script
* jill has been letting me borrow her power cord from time to time while i wait for my new one to come.
* the Lord blesses me in my weaknesses to help me become strong(er).

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 92810.

2010-09-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

the Lord blesses my life everyday ...
* i had time to come home and get my lab book i forgot. (i cant do lab without it).
* i was able to do my laundry.
* i finally got to go buy groceries, fruits, milk, and chicken!!
* my science group finished our project for this week.
* i talked to jayce on the phone and he helped me to understand boys a little better.
* even though i forgot to take pills i still tried all of the salads we made in foods lab and didnt get sick.
* the weather is still nice! and i will take it as long as i can!!

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 92710.

2010-09-27T23:09:00.001-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* i have the most amazing (and funny) fhe brothers in the world!
* (this may technically be old, but i think it counts for today after the day i had) the Lord answered my prayer last semester and told me to move to brooklyn apartments and to live in the 43rd ward and now i have the amazing fhe brothers and such great guys in the ward who let you in to their apartments and feed you cookies, just because they like to be nice. :)
* i live in idaho, and for fhe we made apple juice/cider and played football outside, and it was beautiful and something new.
* i have a scholarship that helps me to live and be able to go to school.
* i have somehow begun to care about school and homework and getting good grades.
* i wasn't awkward.
* a.) i had a football in my car, which impressed the boys quite a bit and b.) i actually caught the football while playing a two-hand touch game which also really impressed the boys.
* i have great roommates who i love and feel completely comfortable with.
* i got to see an old roommate and talk to her for a minute.
* i have a car that can fit a lot of people in it for when we have to drive out to the idaho falls boondocks for fhe at the bishopric members houses.
* i have a mom who does nice things for me when i need it, and who does nice things for her other children as well and i know that if i ever really need anything i can call her and she will do what she can for me.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 92610.

2010-09-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* church was great, i got my new calling, my home teachers gave me about a million hi-fives, we steph and i sat by our fhe brothers in sunday school and one of them made us paper rings, which we then used to become captain planet! (if you remember captain planet.) i was "earth."
* jilly taught me a little bit of how to play the ukulele. it was fun. maybe one day i will actually be good.
* lots of people came over and visited us today.
* i got a 20 minute nap that was pretty much the best nap ever! :)
* lauren let me borrow some bread so i could have a pb&j for dinner. yes that is correct, i had a sandwich for my fast sunday dinner, it was a little sad and pathetic, but you take what you can get i suppose.
* i have amazing roommates!

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 92510.

2010-09-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* i got to sleep in.
* i got my quizzes done.
* i got to watch the RS broadcast at my house with my roomies! (not to mention the broadcast was sooo good.)
* jill bought fish! (they are so fun and cool, more to come later.)
* our apartment stays clean for the most part.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 92410.

2010-09-24T23:11:00.000-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* i got a little extra sleep because my first class wasnt until 1015.
* i always learn so much in my home & family management class.
* my heart attack from wednesday was fixed. **
* friday = tlc day, we all sit around and watch 'say yes to the dress' and 'four weddings' and just have fun and discuss our future wedding and dress.
* jimmy johns delivered us some free sandwiches to promote us eating there. ***
* the repair man came and fixed our cabinet door so now my stuff isnt open to the viewing eye of the public.
* im happy.

** i took my first chemistry test on wednesday. i have been studying and preparing for this test for quite sometime. we take all of our tests in the testing center and then they put the scantron through as you walk out and as soon as you get out there is a display board that shows everyones score next to their i-number. so i finish my test in a little less than half an hour (she said it would take at least an hour) and i felt really confident about it, however that confidence soon faded as i looked at the grade board. next to my i-number was the dreaded number ... 79%. i had a mini heart attack and was extremely confused as to how i could have done so poorly. i went home in a little bit of a bad mood. today, when i went in to my chem class the teacher handed back the tests for us to go over. i was, of course, not very excited to go over it. after all of the tests were out and ready to be gone over she told us that there had been a mistake in the grading rubric and 4 of the questions had been set to the wrong answer. instantly my interest was peaked and i was very glad to go over the test. turns out that i did not get a 79% but rather a 91%, which was much more what i was expecting. i was so happy! (stephanie kept telling me that a 79% was good and that i should be proud of myself. needless to say, i wasnt. it has been a long long time since i last believed that nothing but an 'A' was acceptable. it is a little weird to be back there, but like it or not [hopefully you dont think im prideful] i am really smart, and i might as well do my best and get good grades rather than slack off and just get mediocre ones.)

*** i have been here for 3 weeks now, and since that time jimmy johns has come twice to give us free sandwiches! not only are they delicious, but they are reasonably priced. i havent actually gone and bought one yet, but i figure if they keep bringing them to me for free i wont ever have to. i guess that is the good thing about living so close to jimmy johns!

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 92310.

2010-09-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* I got up early, for once.
* i got some alone time, with myself, just to relax.
* jill let me eat some of her rosemary bread. delicious!
* i got the lab partner i wanted in chemistry.
* i got to have a mini nap.
* jill made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.
* i got to watch a new movie, pretty cute.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 92210.

2010-09-22T22:06:00.000-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* jill gave me a ride to school when i was late.
* i remembered at the last moment to grab my iCard so i could take my chem test right after class.
* i only had homework for one class.
* stephanie lets me use her printer since mine died last semester.
* we had an amazing home & family management class.
* i was able to get all my cleaning done & we passed clean checks.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 92110.

2010-09-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* my little brother called me and we had a nice chat. it was something i had been hoping for. (more for a connection to my family than for him to call.)
* i got my new calling for the ward, and although it may not be the most well known or glamorous calling, i am super excited!
* i am taking a foods class, which means that every tuesday i get to eat tasty food that i make, for free!
* i enjoy telling the truth.
* i remembered that i had jello, delicious!
* new friends!
* jill made a chore chart so we can keep our home happy.
* stephanie vacuumed our room.

<3.

the time is now ... for the story that was to come later.

2010-09-20T21:38:00.000-07:00

today in my home and family management class we were learning about goals, why its important to set them and how to accomplish them and such. well my teacher found a whole bunch of pictures online about peoples goals and put them up on her power point. at one point she went off on a little tangent and hit the button for the next picture to come up ... now, when she planned this powerpoint she just clicked and grabbed any pictures that said "goal" on them without really looking at them. she saw this one and read what it said without examining the photo and thought it was cute so she put it in the slideshow. so here we are, a group of girls sitting in class staring at this:

it took a few minutes of us trying to stifle our laughter for her to realize something was up. by this point we are all dying with laughter and she just keeps looking at us, and then looking at the picture, and then looking at us, back and forth. then, one time looking at the picture she realized what she had done ... and then she couldn't stop laughing. half the class was crying because they were laughing so hard. it was pretty much the funniest moment of my life. and that was the story, i hope that you enjoy.

scripture of the day:

1 Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be though an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. (this is my new roomie, caty's, favorite scripture. today marks the day of her two year baptism date!)

today i am thankful for:

* fun times at the twizl berry.

* songs that everyone can sing to.

* roommate prayer.

* comfy shoes.

* peanut butter & jelly.

* fhe brothers who bring dessert.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 92010.

2010-09-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* I met a lot of new people in my classes.
* fhe was changed from 630 to 7, i didn't get home from the library until 630.
* i made it to class on time even though i woke up a little late.
* steph and i were able to find cubby desks next to each other at the library.
* the 4 hours i spent at the library felt more like 2.
* i had a really good day.
* i got to have a good laugh in my home and family management class.**
* our fhe brother, dawson, cleaned off the dishes that we used at fhe and put them in the washer.
* i was able to get all of my homework done before coming home.

** this story will come later, i need time to find the picture that goes along with it.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 91910.

2010-09-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* i got to sleep in a lot!
* my roommate, jill, made breakfast for me and the rest of the roommates.
* church was amazing, and so much fun.
* my home teachers are so great, and they brought me cookies!
* jills home teacher, sterling, included me in their home teachingness and made me feel special. and he owns a limousine and is gonna give us a ride in it!
* i got to sit and just hang out with some roomies and laugh until we cried.
* i got tons of compliments on my hair, and how shiny and long and pretty it is.
* i got to see someone (my home teacher kyle) do a pretty amazing card trick.
* we had roommate prayer.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 91810.

2010-09-18T23:14:00.000-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* i was able to got to the library for 4 hours with stephanie and get some things done.
* i was able to sleep in a little more than usual.
* stephanie made me lunch.
* i have had a lot of time today to relax and prepare for my second week of classes.
* i was home alone for a little while, so i got some nice relaxing time to myself.
* tomorrow is sunday!

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 91710

2010-09-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* i actually enjoyed my time in the library doing my homework.
* i got to spend some low key time with some of my roomies. i do enjoy having fun, like yesterday, but i also am an old soul at heart, i really just love hanging out and spending time with people. i dont have to be doing anything exciting to have a good time.
* my mom posted on her blog so i got to see a little glimpse of what life at home is like. it is amazing how being away for four months at a time can make you realize how much you just really always want to be home.
* i was able to gain a greater understanding of what i am doing here (byui) and was able to use that to prioritize my life a little.
* i feel loved, all the time, even when i feel overwhelmed, or alone, i always feel loved, like someone is looking out for my best interest and taking care of me.
* life has an interesting way of working out. and it is both frustrating, and gloriously wonderful!!

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 91610.

2010-09-16T22:48:00.000-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...
* my chemistry lab was cancelled so i was able to visit a teacher from last semester and sit in on her class (which i absolutely loved last semester, and actually really miss this semester).
* i got a break from school work to just have fun! ( ** see more)
* i got to randomly run into an old friend who i had been hoping to see.
* i was able to meet new people and make new friends.
* it didn't rain on me while i was walking home from school.

** so tonight i went to play wally ball at 6, which by the way, wally ball is one of my new most favorite things. you don't have to have any talent to play, you just get to have fun and laugh and get a little exercise in between.i played with jill, shelby, stephanie, stephs brother andrew, mike, and lockman. it was so much fun, as always, and i had a blast. but anyways, after we got done playing wally ball we headed back to our apt (we being just us girls) and decided to take some cookies to our new fhe brothers, so that they would see that we are nice and wonderful. so we went over and hung out with them for a while and it was way fun. they are so funny and i think it is going to be a great semester with them as our fhe brothers. then while we were hanging out with them our friend kyle called and said he was at our apt but we were missing, so we all left to hang out with kyle. jill decided to go see someone else she knew so just caty, steph, lauren and i went home. we found kyle waiting for us on our porch. some people were hungry so we decided to walk over to subway. i had already eaten, as had kyle, so we just went for the company. then while we were at subway our friend from last fall walked in with his girlfriend. it was way crazy. so we were excited to see him and we all got hugs, which was good, because boy hugs are good. then jill showed up and brought her friend, mark, along and so we had a huge group of us just hanging out at the subway. after that patrick and his girlfriend left and the rest of us decided to go play pool in the lounge so we played a few games of pool. then kyle went home to do some homework and we went up to our apt and made some cookies and watched "when fish attack" which was a crazy show. but we just hung out and talked, and laughed and it was so much fun, and it was such a well welcomed break for a little while. anyways, as you can see i am having a good time, but don't worry, im still getting things done.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 91510.

2010-09-15T16:59:00.001-07:00

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...

* i got to have some roommate bonding time when i got home, which is always fun and makes me feel more at home in my home.

* i understood the things that we were doing in chemistry, and didn't look like a loser because i didn't understand.

* i still haven't died, and/or passed out, while walking to & from school or up & down the many stairs i must climb.

* i was able to do my laundry (and had clothes to wear while doing my laundry).

* i was able to "bond" with a bunch of girls in my home & family management class over the fact that we don't like our intro to FCS teacher (which many of us have together the hour before).

* a new friend in chemistry who makes me feel like i have someone i can ask question when i am a little confused about what is going on.

* i only have one 745 class this semester instead of 4, like last fall.

<3.

hand of the Lord journal 91410.

2010-09-14T21:00:00.001-07:00

for my book of mormon (second half) class we are required to keep a hand of the Lord journal (this will most likely look like my "today i am thankful for's) for at least 30 (consecutive) days during the semester. last semester was not my finest hour in the area and so i have decided to try a new approach for this semester. seeing as i am becoming a more online type person i have decided to do my hand of the Lord journal on my blog. i will still do normal posts from time to time, but hopefully i will be able to do this consecutively for 30 days and fall in love with it and continue to do it throughout my life.

today i was able to see the hand of the Lord in my life ...

* i was able to "go" (we had to sit out in the hallway because the gym filled up) to devo with some of my roomies and hear some things i needed about the spirit of gratitude vs. the spirit of entitlement.

* i was able to take a nap that i desperately needed and still finish the things that i needed to.

* my roommate reminded me to stop and eat dinner while i was caught up in my work.

* i got to learn how to make lollipops (which i was thinking about wanting to learn to do the other day) in my foods class.

* kate (a roomie from my first semester who got married) is in my foods class so we were able to be cooking partners and we were both able to tell each other when we were confused about something without feeling stupid.

* i had time to eat breakfast this morning (i didn't get home to eat again until 315 and i left at 725).

<3.

back in rexy.

2010-09-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

well, i made it successfully and safely back to rexburg! stephanie, my roommate from my first semester (who i am living with again this semester) flew over to AZ and then drove up with me. we went all the way from tempe to preston idaho on saturday. then we stayed in preston saturday and sunday night at megan's house. monday morning we were up and out the door by 550am. we made it to rexy about 5 minutes before check-ins started. we stood in a line to check-in, i thought that i was going to freeze, it probably wasn't even that cold, but i guess i got used to AZ weather. then after we both got checked in we went up to the apartment, # 207. we were the first ones there so we had the first pick of the bedrooms, which was what we were hoping for. after we put stuff into our bedroom to save it we went and found some things to put into the bedroom across the hall to save for jill (another roomie from my first semester) & lauren (a friend from first semester who had previously lived with jill). then we started unloading my car. later i went to my storage unit to get the rest of my stuff. i also went with jill to her storage unit to get some of her things, and we were greeted by some dead mice all over her storage unit, it was really gross, and i was glad it wasn't my storage unit. since then we have mostly just been hanging out and having fun before the first day of classes tomorrow. yesterday we went and played wallyball (like volleyball only you can use/play off of the walls) for 3 hours with a bunch of people. it was so much fun, but my legs were definitely sore afterwards, and my arm is a little sore today, but it was all worth it. my two new roommates who i just met when they moved in seem really nice. they lived together before and are already friends. their names are caty and shelby and i think we are going to have a lot of fun living with them this semester. i am really excited about having a fun living situation. tomorrow is my first day of classes, i normally will have book of mormon and my chemistry lab on thursdays, but my chemistry teacher emailed everyone and said we weren't going to have class, so i just have one class tomorrow. i am really excited, it is the second half of book of mormon, i took the first half last semester with the same teacher and i really liked him. i feel like he taught me so much and i am looking forward to having another semester of classes with him. this semester i am taking 6 classes for a total of 15 credits. other than chemistry and book of mormon i am taking, foundation science, intro to family & consumer sciences, home & family management, and intro to foods. i think it will be a good semester, but a lot of work! i will probably be spending a lot of time in the library doing homework and studying. well, i love and miss you all already, but i am so happy to be back with my friends!!

scripture of the day:

Alma 30:60 And thus we see the end of him who perverteth the ways of the Lord; and thus we see that the devil will not support his children at the last day, but doth speedily drag them down to hell.

today i am thankful for:

* roommates that i know and love!

* staying up late talking to my roomies about our lives and boys.

* being able to see megan before coming up to rexburg!

* a car that i feel safe traveling great distances in.

* roommates who all gather in the front room to do homework together.

just in case anyone wants my new address it is:

janaya l. johnson

345 S. 2nd W. Apt 207

Rexburg, ID 83440

<3.

when He comes again.

2010-07-14T18:39:00.000-07:00

yesterday evening as the sun was setting there was a brush fire somewhere out of rexburg that caused some pretty amazing things in the sky. we were in and out of the house looking at the sky for about 3 hours. i won't lie, i did try to convince people it was the second coming, but i don't think anyone actually fell for it. it was all pretty amazing though. here are a few of the photos that i took on my iphone.

it was pretty crazy but so amazing!! for more (probably better) photos check out megans blog!!

scripture of the day:

Alma 5: 28 Behold, are ye stripped of pride? I say unto you, if ye are not ye are not prepared to meet God. Behold ye must prepare quickly; for the kingdom of heaven is soon at hand, and such an one hath not eternal life.

today i am thankful for:

* repentance so that we can be prepared to meet God in that last day (the real last day).

* scriptures.

* cameras and the amazing things and pictures they can capture.

* brothers with big mouths who tell you parents about the help you need.

* parents/fathers who lend you money so that you can be safe.

* a Heavenly Father, who, in a round about way, made sure that i am safe and protected just the way He promised me He would.

* megan! haha, i love joking with her and being super sarcastic. it is way fun.

<3.

i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger ...

2010-07-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

today in my book of mormon class my teacher, brother belnap, asked all of the returned missionaries what they wished they had known, learned or done before serving their mission. these are some of the things that were mentioned:

* prayed more
* learned patience
* read their scriptures everyday
* gave more service
* loved all those around them
* had more faith
* trusted in the Lord and in those around them
* gained a greater understanding of the plan of salvation
* learned more about the creation, the fall, and the atonement
* learned to control their anger
* followed the promptings of the spirit as soon as they came

these are really just a few of the things that were mentioned. as i sat there listening to all of these things i just kept thinking that, although i have never served a mission, all of those things were things i wish i would have known, learned, or done in my youth. what important things they all are. they can bless our lives so much and keep us so safe from sin and temptation. i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger. i wish that i put in as much effort to read my scriptures, say my prayers, and learn through the spirit. i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger. i wish that i had taken the time to learn more about the gospel, more about the importance of the temple and sacred ordinances and covenants made there. i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger. i wish that i partook of the sacrament with a greater understanding of the atonement, and that i was more willing to use that atonement for my advantage to more fully bless my own life. i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger. i wish i knew the love that my parents have for me and that i had an understanding of all that they do for me and all of the time they spend praying for me, loving me, caring for me, worrying about me, and helping me. i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger. i wish that i was more open to helping others and allowing others to help me. i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger. i wish i felt the urgency to be better than i am, to "rise up and have done with lesser things." i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger. i wish that i knew that i could trust in the Lord in every aspect of my life, that He knows better than I, and that His will, not mine, will bring me true happiness in life. i wish that I knew what I know now when i was younger. i wish that i turned to the Lord in trials, and knew that His gospel could heal my soul and piece my life back together better than anything else. i wish that I knew what I know now when i was younger. i wish i knew the blessings and strength that can come from a fathers blessing, and that it is okay to ask for a fathers blessing for things other than just sickness or school. i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger. i wish that i had tried a little harder, done a little better, and stuck it out a little longer. i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger. i wish that i saw and loved others the way that my Savior sees and loves them. i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger. i wish that i had turned to my parents when i was going through a hard time or had a problem. there are so many things that i know now that i wish i would have known when i was younger. things that i wish i would have seen, or noticed. too many times we just don't allow ourselves the opportunity to grow, whether it is because we are too scared, too unaware, or too prideful. i wish that i would have allowed myself those opportunities. i wish that i didn't have to look back on my life and wonder why i waited so long to figure out all the things that i know. the knowledge that i have is so immense, i am continually astonished by it. i am so grateful to know that the things that i have learned, and the things that i have a knowledge of are true. that they are unwavering. that they are real. that they are the only way to live my life that will truly bring me happiness. that they are there to bless my life, even when it seems like they might be more of a hinderance or punishment. i truly do wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger. what a difference it would have made in my life.

what i know now:
(this is a quote from "the fellowship of the unashamed" given in a talk by Elder Eyring, but it pretty much sums up what i know now and how i feel about what i know.)
"I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made; I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tinted visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need pre-eminence, positions, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk with patience, am lifted up in prayer, and labor with power. My face is set, my goal is heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided or delayed, will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table with the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the cause of Christ. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me and when He returns for His own He will have no problem recognizing me."

I love this gospel. What a blessing and a joy it is in my life. I am grateful everyday for parent's who were wise enough and brave enough to live it's teachings everyday and to the fulness of their ability. It has made all the difference in my life.

scripture of the day:

it is your lucky day ... for today i have two scriptures of the day!!

Enos 1: 4-5 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens. And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.

Alma 5: 14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

today i am thankful for:

* the sneaky little 'devil' who put money into my account so i can be more able to make it home. (thank you anonymous giver).

* stephanie and her printer since my printer has decided to give up and die.

* brother belnap and all of the many insights i learn from him and his class.

* the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

* family

* the funny squirrel who keeps trying to break into our house to eat the cookies on the table.

* what i know now.

<3.

much ado about nothing.

2010-07-05T21:27:00.000-07:00

well, it has been about a week since i last blogged and yet, i have not been up to much of anything. i feel like i have been really busy. there is always a lot to get done near the end of the semester. i am trying to make sure i dont fizzle out, but it is getting hard. i have been trying to do more spiritual stuff, because lets face it, what college kids doesnt need some extra blessings at the end of a semester. I have been reading from the conference edition of the ensign and preach my gospel. it has been really great to have that added spirit, but also sometimes i feel like it is just adding to my load of things i need to do, but it is worth it. on july 3rd (the day everyone in idaho celebrated july 4th) steph and i just drove out into some fields, found a nice hill looking out over idaho falls and watched the fireworks go up all around us. it was pretty cool. but also a little creepy, just sitting out in the middle of a dark field. haha. i have been getting very excited about coming home for a while. i never realize home much i love home until i am not at home. sunday night my family skyped me while they were all out on the rez for dinner. i was jealous i didnt get to eat any popovers and chili stew, but mostly i was sad i didn't get to spend time with my aunties helping them to make the popovers. i think that is my greatest bonding time with my aunties and i always look forward to it, even if i am not very good at it. i also just miss getting to talk to everyone and see them. i was happy to be able to "talk" to shad on skype. he is getting so big, i feel like i missing out on so much of his life. i also enjoyed talking to the rest of my family, technology is sure amazing. here i am, two states away from them, and yet i was able to see them as though i was sitting with them. what a great blessing in my life! other than that i have just been working on getting my room packed up. i am not getting trunky or anything, but i like getting packed up before finals week, so i dont have any more stress put on me than is necessary, plus i figured that since some of my family is coming up this weekend that would be a good time to get everything moved downstairs and to a storage unit. :) manual labor for free sounds nice to me. so thats the nothing that i have been doing much of this past week.

scripture of the day:

Alma 5: 43-44 And now, my brethren, I would that ye should hear me, for I speak in the energy of my soul; for behold, I have spoken unto you plainly that ye cannot err, or have spoken according to the commandments of God. For I am called to speak after this manner, according to the holy order of God, which is in Christ Jesus; yea, I am commanded to stand and testify unto this people the things which have been spoken by our fathers concerning the things which are to come.

today i am thankful for:

* days off of school that allow you to get lots done.

* a fan borrowed from megan that keeps my room cool during the day so i can get that lots done.

* the movie peaceful warrior. it is one of my favorites!!

* all the many different types of scriptures we have and the ability they have to make me want to be a better person.

* corn dogs.

* technology, and then amazing things it can do.

<3.

lets talk.

2010-06-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

last thursday my bishop called and asked if i would be willing to speak in sacrament today. i said of course and began preparing. he asked me to speak using the talk by sister lant from last conference. this is what i said:
(some of it may be hard to imagine without my tone and inflection, but i am sure you will understand.)

Good morning everybody, my name is Janaya. I am from Tempe, AZ and today, I am giving away free stuff. That’s right, because, College kids love free stuff. We love it. I love free stuff. It doesn’t matter what the stuff is, as long as its free, we like it. Well, today is every college kids lucky day, because I really am handing out free stuff.
I was asked today to talk on Cheryl C Lant’s Conference talk. As I read through Sister Lant’s talk I realized that, Sister Lant loves us college kids. And so she has given us some free stuff, she decided to give us a “read one talk get two talks FREE” talk. So today, instead of getting to hear about one talk, you get to hear about three. The talks that I am going to speak on today are, entitled “That our children might see the face of the Savior” by sister Lant, which is the actual talk that can be found in the conference edition of the Ensign, but I will also be speaking on the talk entitled “That our families might see the face of the savior,” and the talk entitled “That all of God’s children might again see the face of the savior.”
The first talk I will speak on is entitled “That Our Children Might See the Face of the Savior.” In D&C 101:38 it says, “Seek the face of the Lord always, and ye shall have eternal life.” Christ’s invitation to seek Him is an invitation to know who He is, what He has done for us, and what He has asked us to do. I realize that the majority of us don’t have children right now, but the fact is that most of us will have children one day. One of the things that the Lord has asked us to do can be found in 3 Nephi 17:11 when Jesus “commands that the little children should be brought” unto him. There are many ways that we can bring our children to the Savior, and most of those ways have been set up or taught by the church. Things like, family scripture study, family prayer, family home evening, having dinner together as a family, going on family vacations, or sharing your testimony with your children. All of these things will help to bring our children unto Christ. And will teach them to recognize the face of the Savior. Sister Lant says, “It is our sacred responsibility as parents and leaders of this rising generation of children to bring them to the Savior so that they might see His face and the face of our Father in Heaven as well.” Another thing the Lord has asked us to do is teach our children. Another scripture in 3 Nephi portrays this commandment when it says, “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” In third Nephi, following their own experiences with the Savior, the Nephite parents taught their children about Him. They taught them to love the Lord. They taught them His gospel. The taught them how to live it. They taught them so well that there was righteousness and peace. This is the type of teaching we need to use with our children. These are the things that we need to be doing in the future if we want our children to know Him, and be able to one day see His face.
The next talk that I will speak on is entitled “That Our Families Might See the Face of the Savior.” In her talk Sister Lant invites us to look around at our families, those we love. Since your families aren’t here today to look at I would urge you to think about each of your family members individually for a second. Sister Lant then continues on to say, “This is what matters most – our families. I am sure that more than anything, you want this family to be yours eternally.” As I first read this talk, and took those moments, to think about my family, or those that I love, I found that many more people entered my mind than I would have thought. I first thought about my parents, then my siblings and in my mind I decided I was doing good, I didn’t have too much to worry about in regards to making sure my family could be an eternal family. My parents and siblings are all active in the church. We make our mistakes like everyone else, but we also work to fix them, and I knew that one day we would be an eternal family. And then my mind left my immediate family and headed in a different direction. I was turned to my aunties, my uncles, my many cousins, my cousins children, and their families, and I felt as though I were overcome with sorrow. I am not sure I could describe to you, or them, the amount of love and respect that I have for all of them, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that as of that moment, I would not be able to consider many of them as part of my “eternal family.” I once heard a speaker named, Herewini Jones give a devotional on the signs of the second coming. In the last 5 minutes of his talk his thoughts turned from those signs and focused on eternal families. I remember him saying something to the effect of, “how sad it will be, in that last day, if we walk forward with our families, ready for exaltation, for eternity, and the Savior looks around us and through tears asks, ‘where is the rest of your family?” We have been entrusted with precious families. We have been given a sacred, noble stewardship, for we are the ones God has appointed to encircle our families with love and understanding. We have the blessing of bringing our families to the Savior by teaching them the truths of the gospel from the scriptures and the prophets and by helping them to feel and recognize the Spirit. We must be willing to do these things. This will not come easily. It will take great effort. It will take a lot of hard work and patience and faith, but nothing is more important or rewarding. If we want our families to come to Christ that they might see His face, it is important that we seek to see His face as well.
The last talk I will speak on today is entitled “That All of Gods Children Might Again See the Face of the Savior.” The Lord has invited us to come unto Him and has commanded us to bring His children with us, that we, together, might see His face and live eternally with Him and with our Father in Heaven. We have all been told that we are literally the sons and daughters of God, and as such, He loves us. The Lord wants His eternal family as much as we want ours. He has given us the calling of making sure that His children return to Him. In order to do this we must learn how to love the Lord’s children. We must put our own lives in order so that His children can look to us and follow. We have to know the way in order to show it to them. I think it is interesting how we are all quick to understand that we are God’s children, but it takes a little longer for us to grasp that every person who has ever been born on earth is literally our spirit brother or sister. As I think of this, I think of my own siblings, and the overwhelming amount of love that I have for them. I would do everything in my power to make sure that each of the is able to return to our Father in Heaven. I think it is hard for us to imagine each other as our siblings. I often think that if we could see the way we knew each other before we came to this earth, we would have a love for each other that is as great as, or possibly greater than, the love we have for our own immediate siblings. I want to try and give you a glimpse of those relationships:
(at this point i looked around and would point at people and look them straight in their eyes and say one of the following)
We started a band together
We used to ride our bikes together
We had rock collection
We played cowboys and indians together
We had lunch together everyday
We had slumber parties
We pulled pranks … on those two
We prayed together
We went to church together
We read our scriptures together
We visited the Lord together
We watched God create the Earth together
We fought against Satan together.
We have all been through so much together, that we don’t even know about. I think that if we could truly get a glimpse of those things, we would not let one person who has ever walked the face of this earth leave without knowing that they could return to Him with us, to again be part of our eternal family. Brothers and Sisters, we are the angels that Heavenly Father has sent today to bless His children, and we can help them to one day see the face of the Savior. Together we can come to know Him. We can feel of His love and His blessings. And through Him we can return to the presence of the Father.
I am so grateful that I was able to read and grow in understanding because of these talks. I earnestly look forward to the day when I can look upon the face of the Savior with the rest of you, my brothers and sisters. I love you, more now than I ever realized before. We have a divine role in this life that we must not neglect. The Savior is counting on us, our friends are counting on us, our families are counting on us, every one is counting on us. I hope and I pray, that when I walk forward, in that last day, that the Savior will look around me, and with a smile on His face, be able to greet and hug every single member of my eternal family. And I say all these things in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

and that was my talk. it was such an amazing experience for me. i am not sure i have ever felt the spirit help me prepare something so much before in my life. it was absolutely wonderful. i love you all!

scripture of the day:

1 Nephi 1:12 And it came to pass that as he read, he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord

today i am thankful for:

* the spirit and his ability to guide me in my life.

* invitations that we dont want, that bless our lives anyways.

* stephanie! and her support today, it made such a huge difference.

* kleenex because having a runny nose without them is one of the grossest things.

* leftovers that taste as good today as they did friday.

* the opportunity i have to go to church every sunday and partake of the sacrament.

* the plan of salvation and the knowledge i have of its truthfulness and divinity.

* laughter. getting to meet new people and find things you have in common and just being able to laugh with them.

<3.

aweSTRUCK.

2010-06-26T07:50:00.000-07:00

(this is for my dad!!:) (its also important to have the volume on for the first and last one)

tonight as megan and i were talking in the kitchen, we had a strange feeling that the paparazzi were outside. remembering that we are not as famous as we think we should be we headed out to see what was going on. and it was ... the most amazing lightning storm i have ever seen. because it is near impossible to capture a picture of some good lightning on an iphone i decided instead to take videos. here are a few that i took. some are better than other, but none of them are as good as the real thing, not even close!

this ones is funny because megan had no idea i was video taping:

this one is short and has a really good one in it:

the only thing that matter for this one is the first 5 seconds:

this one is hilarious because stephanie started out trying to do a forecast and it just ends up her reaction to a bunch of stuff:

so there it is. but seriously, these videos cannot even relay how amazing this lightning storm was. it was completely around rexburg, everywhere you turned you saw it. it was so cool. and it was so much better than it seems on an of my videos. it was a wonderful moment in my life!!

scripture of the day:

D&C 38:30 I tell you these things because of your prayers; wherefore, treasure up wisdom in your bosoms, lest the wickedness of men reveal these things unto your by their wickedness, in a manner which shall speak in your ears with a voice louder than that which shall shake the earth; but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.

today i am thankful for:

* youtube and the hours of entertainment it can provide, not to mention the laughs.

* calls from the Lord that bless and humble us.

* the wonders and glories of God that baffle me more and more each day.

* friends to sit on a blanket with and just talk to.

* a mom who know delicious recipes and takes the time to send them to me so that i can eat delicious home cooked meals with my friends.

* prayer!

<3.

birthday time.

2010-06-22T15:30:00.001-07:00

well, my birthday was pretty much the best!! it was kinda weird not to be with family, but it was still so wonderful! i started the day off early, at 8am!! haha, and some of you may be thinking that is not early, but for me, it is. i was woken up by my roommate megan who walked in with my birthday gift!

it was wonderful! when i walked out my door to go to the bathroom i was greeted with this

on the bathroom mirrior. megan had decorated it for me! megan and i ordered our bountiful basket last monday and had to be out to pick it up by 815 so that is why i was up. it was our first time ordering bountiful baskets, which is this way awesome group in certain states (az, id, nv, tx, ut, wa, and wy) and you pay $15 and they have gone out and searched all of the local farms and gotten a large amount of produce and they give you so much of each thing. i am not sure that explanation was very good, but it is really cool. this week in our bountiful basket we got:

a bag of cherries

a bag of fresh green beans

two heads of broccoli

a head of lettuce

a bag of grapes

a cantalope

six bananas and 10 peaches

20 plums

5 tomatoes

a bag of carrots and two avacados

all for 15 dollars!! isnt that insane!?!?!?! it is pretty much perfect for poor college students. enough food to last a week for two roommates, so, its like paying 8 dollars a week for food! too perfect for words, not to mention it is all delicious! then when we got back i was greeted by one of my other roommates nannette who had made me a delicious muffin cake. (all her muffin tins were out on loan, so she just made me a muffin cake instead, much more birthday festive in my mind!) after enjoying some muffin cake megan and i were off to hula!!! that is right, i started taking hula classes. my class is the halau hula kaleona`uhane of rexburg! my instructor is auntie lee. she is pretty much amazing. hula is just about the best thing in my life. not to mention the greatest work out i have ever had. we go for two and a half hours on saturdays, and the majority of the time is spent learning/dancing the hula, which means for two and a half hours i am either dancing or standing in a squat! it is way fun though! i am so excited to learn more and get better. when i got home from hula i enjoyed one of our many plums and then megan came from the mail room to inform me that i had received a package! only problem, she couldn't get the door to open, so i had to go coax the door open before i could get my package. it was from my mom of course. it was really nice, and i liked all of the things in it! she sent me a "do it yourself" birthday cake, that i actually used for my best friend stephanie's birthday the next day. it turned out okay, but it took some magic, haha. i think it just didn't have enough time to cool. then after i opened my package i got ready for the rest of the days festivities. megan did my make-up!

so of course i was looking good. then after we were done getting ready we went and picked stephanie up and her, megan, and I were off to IF (idaho falls) for some food, shopping, and fun! stephanie presented me with a birthday jedi knight pin.

it was quite nice. once we got to IF we went straight to red robin, because we were all starving!

megans burger was probably the biggest thing i have ever seen!

steph got the whiskey river bbq burger.

and i got the whiskey river bbq wrap! which is my favorite!

and, usually it comes with cantalope, but its like they knew it was my birthday and they gave me watermelon instead!! it was really good. then after we were done with our food they pulled out my birthday cake!

it took some strategic planning to get the candles lit, there was a draft coming from somewhere that kept blowing them out! but we finally got them lit and i got to make my wish and blow them out!!

then i got to open my presents from steph! they were great! after that we went shopping at ross, target, fashion bug, and porters. then we headed to the movies. we decided to see toy story 3 in 3D. and ... it was really good! the first 30 minutes were anyways. after the first 3o minutes they had some technical difficulties and could not get the movie to turn back on, so we got our money back, and one day we will see how the movie ends.

after that we just went to the store and bought everything we needed for stephs birthday bbq the next day and headed home! it was a really busy birthday, but it was so much fun!!

scripture of the day:

helaman 5:12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you, to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

today i am thankful for:

* megan and stephanie!!! and the fun times they had for me on my birthday!

* my mom, and the package she sent, it meant a lot to me.

* everyone who sent me a letter, text, message, or note! it made my day!!

* this life that i have been given and everyone in it!

* the time i have had, and will have to become more like the Lord.

<3.

sketches for interior design.

2010-06-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

for my interior design class we are required to complete 75, 15-minute sketches during the semester. every 25 we have a day where the teacher takes them and goes over them to make sure we are doing them, and doing them correctly. she often emphasizes that these sketches are for "quantity NOT quality" or in other words, we dont need to be perfect artists, just get them done. well, this is a sure good thing because as i have sketched it has become apparent to me that I am definitely NOT an artist. but there are a few that I like so I decided to show them off. they arent all finished because at the end of your 15 minutes, you are done. the first 25 sketches we did were to be of any object or thing that we wanted and were allowed to be drawn in 2D. here are a few of the ones I did.

then sketches 26-50 are supposed to be 3D pictures, mainly of buildings, houses, interiors, exteriors, and different architectural elements, such as windows, doors, etc. we also started some rendering (coloring) for these sketches, im not so good at that either. i did cheat a little and do a few elevations, but i felt i was better at those (flat, one wall sketches). these are the ones I liked the best.

as you can see, i was not born to draw, but it actually is really fun, i just wish i was better at it.

scripture of the day:
2 Nephi 32:9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.

today i am thankful for:
* my mom! and the fact that she was willing to carry me inside of her for 9 months so that i could enjoy this life that i have. :)
* all of the amazing tips and tricks you can learn to be able to draw a little bit better than you could before.
* cheez-its! they are tasty, and cheesy, and one of the most wonderful things of my life.
* beds. whoever created a nice comfy mattress for beds is on of my most favorite people. i love being able to snuggle up under a warm blanket in your nice comfy bed!
* USPS. i love being able to send and receive mail. it makes life exciting.
* good people. a girl from my interior design class fainted outside the classroom today, (i was already inside class and didnt really know) but i could hear people asking her if she was okay, and this boy and girl called the paramedics and stayed and made sure she was okay. its just really comforting to know that people care about others.

<3.

camping ... sort of.

2010-06-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

so last night megan, stephanie and i decided we needed a little more adventure in our lives. we were sitting on a dock out at beaver dick and decided, what would be more adventurous than to have a spontaneous night of camping at beaver dick?!? megan and i were very excited about this idea, it took a little coaxing with stephanie but soon she was also excited. we jumped in the car and headed home to quickly grab our camping gear, but since we dont really have camping gear we just grabbed all of our blankets, put on warm p.j.'s and were off. next stop was the back side of broulims to retrieve a pallet so we could have a fire. we shoved everything into my car and we were back off to beaver dick. we got there, set up our "campsite," and then worked on getting our fire going. stephanie was a little concerned about the size of the fire if we were to burn the whole pallet at once, and so we decided to try and break it up into smaller pieces. this is much harder than it sounds. we started by leaning it up against a big sitting rock and taking turns jumping on it.

we got a few little pieces of wood, but not much. our fire was looking pretty pathetic. then we found some smaller, but still pretty good sized rocks and decided that smart thing to do would be to just drop this giant rock on the pallet which would surely break it. well, we are girls, and we were wrong. rather than breaking the pallet, the rock decided it would be much more fun to hit the pallet, bounce of, and try and break our ankles. luckily it never succeeded, but it was pretty entertaining.

i love in this picture how if you look at the top left corner you can see megans feet fleeing from the crazy rock. also while we were there a stray dog/puppy decided we seemed like friendly folk and took a liking to us. she was girl and megan and i are pretty sure she was something like a german shepherd huskie mix. she was beautiful. we named her magua, because there was Mas AUGA around. she was such a good dog, she just sat with us and she even tried to help us break our pallet by stepping on it just like we were. and she also attacked another dog to protect us. she was pretty much awesome and megan and i wished we could keep her.

well, after we got our fire going pretty good

we broke out the smores. because all good camping trips include smores. well, my body decided that smores were not something it wanted in its body and took a stand. i was feeling pretty sick, and everyone was freezing so we ended up moving our stuff to the car to sleep in there. well, i tried to fight it, but the sickness got worse and worse until finally stephanie had to zoom us home so i could try and find some way to make myself feel better. since then we have decided it was heartburn, which was not a fun experience, but i ended up sleeping in my bed while stephanie and megan slept in my car in the parking lot. it was still a really fun night, and it was fun to get excited about something.

scripture of the day:
Mosiah 5:13 For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?

today i am thankful for:
* magua, our new puppy friend who i love!
* stephanie and her speedy driving skills.
* fun ideas, even if they dont work out exactly as planned.
* antacids and indoor plumbing! haha.

<3.

upcoming birthday.

2010-06-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

this is mostly for my mother, who recently asked what i would like for my birthday and i have come to my conclusion. for my birthday i would most like money to be able to buy a new computer.

this is what i have decided i want most. i want to be able to buy a new mac anyways, and having money from people for my birthday would help immensely. so yes, if you are wondering what to get me for my birthday, just send some $$$$ my way and i will be happy :) i hope that this helps mother!!

today i am thankful for:

* rain, it has been raining here for a long time now, and i love it! rain is one of my most favorite things!

* a computer that i am able to do my homework on so that i can get good grades in my classes.

* a car that lets me go places.

* WinCo where they have cheap foods.

* music and the impact it can have on life.

* lactaid pills that make it so i can eat dairy without having "my body cry".

<3.

design analysis 3.

2010-06-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

so i get to do really cool, really fun stuff for my interior design class. however, this last one, while still being really cool and really fun, was also REALLY time consuming. but i think it ended up pretty good. for this design analysis we were paired up with another student from the class and then we pretended they were our client and we were their client, and we asked questions about what they want in their house, and how they want their house to look, and just all the questions a designer would ask a client and then our job was to draw up a floor plan and also a lighting/electrical plan and then have color/wallpaper/flooring choices for each room. my partner pretended that she had 4 children, 3 girls and 1 boy, the two oldest (a girl and a boy) should have their own rooms and the two youngest, both girls, should share a room. her husband is a psychologist and needed an in home office, they had a very large budget, and wanted everything big. she also really wanted an octagon shaped library and lots of windows. i am going to put up 3 pictures. (the first two show the windows but the last one doesnt) the first one is the floor plan i drew up, the second one is the lighting/electrical plan, and the last one is one that i just really quickly drew up where i just labeled everything so you can see what the house would look like (this one is not perfectly accurate in the entryway size, but you get the picture.) it ended up being an extremely large house, i think a little more than 4000 square feet. each 1/4" square equals 2'. i had a lot of fun planning everything and finding different lights and chandeliers and fans. looking at hundreds of colors and putting them together. it was kind of crazy, and even though i worked on it a little the whole week, i was still up until 4am finishing it all last night. i hope you enjoy.

today i am thankful for:
* the ability i have to function even when sleep deprived.
* fun classes that make us do things that we would never have imagined we could do before.
* a wallet that is good for smushing spiders in the car.

* sharpies. they work really well when you are drawing up a floor plan for a house.

* patience. i am glad that i was patient enough to draw and redraw and redraw this floorplan over and over again. i think by the end of the project i had drawn up the floor plan a total of 10 times.

* the USPS and how i can send stuff to people in AZ without having to actually physically take it to them.

<3.

oreo day.

2010-05-31T23:25:00.000-07:00

today was memorial day, or oreo day as we johnsons have dubbed it. sadly i spent most of the day doing homework ... alone. but i did not allow myself to be deprived of what is really important on this holiDAY. OREOS!!! i went out and bought some just for the occasion and let myself indulge in them. it may not have been the most exciting memorial day, but it was a good oreo day.

today i am thankful for:
* oreos. and their deliciousness
* brothers who text to remind you that is oreo day so you dont miss out
* a day off of school (even though this usually means teachers think they should give you more homework)

<3.

train tracks take two.

2010-05-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

today megan had to go back out to the train tracks to take some more pictures in a "different lighting" for her photography class. of course i was more than happy to join her in this adventure. it was raining, and beautiful, and i figured i could get some pictures of the train and the wooden building that i didn't get to last time. so we headed out and it was really fun ... again.

i really like how the rain falling down the sides of the train makes it look like a zebra or something.

this was megans rainy picture taking outfit. i liked it. i knew i wouldnt lose her.

it was very muddy and wet from the rain, and like any good college student, i definitely did not let this muddy opportunity pass. really i was surprised by a mud pit that looked like a firm layer of mud, not so, i feel i have a better understanding of how quick sand works though.

we also stopped on the way home and took some pictures of the beautiful tree blossoms. now this is something you definitely dont see in az.

im still not sure why i find taking pictures to be so entertaining, but it is definitely one of my favorite past times. its so calming and relaxing. and it is a good thing to do when you feel like you just need to get away for a few minutes, whether you need to get away from homework, roommates, or just life, its wonderful!

today i am thankful for:

* megan! (haha, it seems like i am grateful for her a lot, but i am!! im not really sure what this semester would be like without her!)

* rain!! i absolutely love the rain. it is pretty much my favorite thing in the whole entire world! and i love being able to just walk in the rain, there is such a feeling of freedom and carelessness when you walk in the rain, and it is wonderful!

* trains, while i do not like riding in trains very much, they do make pretty cool pictures. (not to mention when you are falling into the hidden quick sand mud pit they are very sturdy for grabbing on to so you dont totally biff it.)

* cuddling up with a big blanket and just feeling warm and happy. it is so amazing.

<3.

paulo freire.

2010-05-27T19:50:00.000-07:00

today was my day to give my GIANT REPORT in my history and philosophy of education class. for this giant report we are given an influential educator and we must research them and then give a 5 to 10 minute presentation on them and also write a 2 to 5 page paper on them and how their philosophy influences me. i was given the brazilian educator Paulo Freire.

we have known about this presentation since the second week of class, but, like any good college student, i waited until yesterday to start working on mine. I have been thinking about it though, and how i wanted to go about my presentation, and what would work best with freire's philosophies and so yesterday i printed out about 8 articles either about freire, his philosophy, and his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I sat down and read read read. I feel like I know this man inside and out. I put together a power point, which is what most of the other presenters have used for their presentation, but then, i decided not to use it. a stressful move on my part, but on the first slide of the powerpoint i put in part of his theory that says that "students should be involved in their own learning." so i got up for my presentation, pulled up my slideshow, told them who my educational giant was and read them the first page of the slide, and close it!! people looked very confused and could not figure out why i was not using my powerpoint. i then just pretty much told them it was time for them to get involved with their own learning and asked what they needed to know about freire to feel like they understood his philosophies. it ended up going really well and the teacher afterwards said she was impressed by how much i knew about freire. i was so glad! i had been so nervous!! ("all night" nervous to be exact, dont tell my mother;) but she actually ended up using both my paper and my presentation as examples of how people should be presenting. crazy!!! it makes me feel good, but at the same time i feel like the half of the class that already presented was glaring at me because their presentations apparently did not reach "my standard" and then the other half was glaring at me because now they had to make sure that their presentation reached "my standard". oh the difficulty of getting good grades. well, that is it for now. i should probably finish my homework for interior design.

today i am thankful for:

* the ability i have to function off of little to no sleep.

* a brain that, although it has difficulties sometimes remembering my life, is very capable of remembering the life of paulo freire.

* megan! (again, yes, it is true) and that she was willing to curl my hair (so i could look "professional" for my presentation) while i took a small nap. :)

* naps!!! i love naps. i love sleeping in the middle of the day! and today was one of the first days i actually felt i could nap because i hadnt slept much!

<3.

lime cilantro rice and steak marinated in soy sauce.

2010-05-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

this is a real quick blog, just because i felt like blogging. today for lunch i had a most delicious meal! i made myself some lime cilantro rice and some steak marinated in soy sauce.

it is definitely one of my best creations so far this semester!!

today i am thankful for:

* food and all of the many delicious flavors in the world.

* curling irons.

* jayce!!! i love to text and talk to jayce, he is my favorite!!

* music music music. i have been listening to music a lot lately, and it makes me so happy.

<3.

big jud's.

2010-05-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

since yesterday megan and i have been planning on visiting the filling station (delicious hamburger place) today after she got home from class. she came home and we headed off on our way. however, in the saddest turn of events in my life, we made it to the filling station only to find out that they now close at 3 monday thru thursday. we were very upset, but, megan suggested we make a visit to big jud's. i have not been to big jud's yet, although i had heard about it many times and have been told it is one of those, "must do"'s while up here in rexburg, so i decided this was good idea. now, big jud's is famous because ..... they have a ONE POUND BURGER!!!! i know what you are all thinking, thats disgusting. and you would be right, it really is disgusting. it is huge! not many people can finish a whole big jud's by themselves. so ... if you do finish a whole big jud's by yourself, you get your picture on the wall! and you get a t-shirt. so it is probably worth all of the sickness and, excuse my language, vomiting, just so you can get a t-shirt and get your picture on the wall!! well, needless to say, i was not even about to try and eat one, i got a normal sized hickory bacon burger. it was pretty good, but not as good as the filling stations bacon cheese burger! so good! anyways, right after you order your food they bring a small plate out for each of you, and some ketchup and FRY SAUCE!! (one of my favorite things about rexburg = fry sauce. i love it!!) megan explained to me that they bring you these things for you to have something fun to do while you wait for your food. this is what megan did.

and this is what i did!

i definitely was not bored while i waited for my food! i also enjoyed looking at all of the pictures on the wall of people who had eaten the big jud. i was impressed by a lot of them. the pictures of the people who have finished a one pounder probably take up a 2ft by 4ft space on the wall. then they have pictures of people who have finished a double pounder and those pictures take up a 2ft by 2ft space on the wall. and then there are about 4 pictures of people who have finished triple pounders, the most impressive there was a picture of a "team eating", but the two people who ate and finished a triple were two 12 year old boys! impressive! but, the most impressive, and disgusting of them all, was a father son team, (son was probably around 12 as well), and together they finished a FIVE POUNDER!! thats right people, five pounds of hamburger on a bun, and these two ate it all! along with fries and a drink, because you have to finish those too for it to count!. i think big jud's would be really fun to go to with a bunch of people, you could order the big jud, split it, and end up paying like 2 dollars a person. nice. all in all it was really fun, but i would rather go the filling station any day of the week.

today i am thankful for:

* a mother who taught me enough for me to know that trying to eat a one pound hamburger by myself is NOT a smart idea.

* megan!! megan is always willing to go places and do stuff with me, and it makes life fun!

* and again, megan! haha, megan helps me plan fhe every monday and i dont know what i would do without her help.

* stephanie, and the fun times we have talking in fake accents and watching boys skateboard around church parking lots.

<3.

freak snowstorm.

2010-05-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

that's right. it is exactly what it sounds like. today, around two i left my house to go and take stephanie out to the fire chief's house to return some of his nephew's things to storage. as i left the house i was so happy about what a nice day it was. warm and sunny. perfect rexburg weather! stephanie and i drove out to the fire chiefs house and as i sat in the car waiting for her to return the items i looked around and noticed some, peculiar clouds, rolling in from the south. stephanie got back in the car and i pointed them out to her, and she told me they were rain clouds. if only if only. i should have known, rexburg does not believe in rain clouds. well, we went to sonic to get some drinks and the wind started blowing real hard. stephanie was sure it was going to blow my car away at any moment. but it didn't. then as we were heading back to stephanies apartment, it started to rain, but soon, the rain started to have a visitor, named SNOW! no big deal, it was little tiny snowflakes that melted as soon as they hit my window. we parked in steph's parking lot and in about 30 seconds the tiny snowflakes turned into giant snowflakes and stephanie, in her shorts and t-shirt, decided that she was not getting out of my car until it stopped! stephanie was also pretty sure that we were going to get snowed in to my car. so we spent an hour in my car while it snowed really hard, and we got a little bored. so we wrote things in the foggy windows, two girls came out from the apt. under stephanies and one was taking pictures and the other one looked quite upset about the situation, after a few minutes they went back inside. about 5 minutes later, the upset girl came back out and yelled, "WHY ARE YOU SNOWING???" on the top of her lungs and went back inside, it was hilarious. then stephanie decided that we needed to do a weather report. it was so funny.

just for your reference, there was no tornado, that we know of, and cars were not really sliding around the parking lot ... not yet at least. well, now here i sit, 430 and and the sun is back out and the skies are blue, and i am guessing that if i went outside it would be nice and warm again. oh rexburg, how you confuse me with your bipolar weather.

scripture of the day:
Alma 26:6 Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them.

today i am thankful for:
* arizona weather, and not having to worry if it is going to suddenly snow in the middle of may.
* stephanie, and her ability to make being "snowed in" a car so much fun.
* fireplaces and blankets that keep you warm and toasty after you come in from crazy snowstorms.
* phones that can take videos.
* cheap cherry limeades from sonic!

<3.

brilliant! gorgeous! talented! fabulous! janaya l.

the games are a foot, sort of.

she shoots, she scores!.

project pinterest.

fhe boys.

talent.

giving thanks.

is there a good reason to buy knee highs?.

fhe boys.

"montana is all i hoped it would be"

soccer for the soul.

lessons learned at byu-i.

happy to you shad!

first flurries of fall.

it comes but once a year ...

fútbol americano.

cake redemption.

lets swap.

time for change?

well, its that time again ...

friend? ... or foe?.

swiss steak?.

birthday bonfire bash.

pajama pants.

dinner "with" aunt kathy.

spiderman gives hugs.

i'm a natural.

power cleaning.

choose a dyeing technique.

settled.

the things of my soul.

white cork tree.

cake pops.

what time is lunch?

time flies when you're having fun.

grandma chic.

i love to see the temple.

the great nerf gun attack of 2010.

toy story 3.

the night before hallows' eve.

fhe.

lessons from the Lord.

the 2 most handsomest men in the world.

hand of the Lord journal 10*7*10.

hand of the Lord journal 10*6*10.

hand of the Lord journal 10*5*10.

hand of the Lord journal 10*4*10.

hand of the Lord journal 10*3*10.

hand of the Lord journal 10*2*10.

hand of the Lord journal 10*1*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*30*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*29*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*28*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*27*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*26*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*25*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*24*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*23*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*22*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*21*10.

the time is now ... for the story that was to come later.

hand of the Lord journal 9*20*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*19*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*18*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*17*10

hand of the Lord journal 9*16*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*15*10.

hand of the Lord journal 9*14*10.

back in rexy.

when He comes again.

i wish that i knew what i know now when i was younger ...

much ado about nothing.

lets talk.

aweSTRUCK.

birthday time.

sketches for interior design.

camping ... sort of.

upcoming birthday.

design analysis 3.

oreo day.

hand of the Lord journal 10710.

hand of the Lord journal 10610.

hand of the Lord journal 10510.

hand of the Lord journal 10410.

hand of the Lord journal 10310.

hand of the Lord journal 10210.

hand of the Lord journal 10110.

hand of the Lord journal 93010.

hand of the Lord journal 92910.

hand of the Lord journal 92810.

hand of the Lord journal 92710.

hand of the Lord journal 92610.

hand of the Lord journal 92510.

hand of the Lord journal 92410.

hand of the Lord journal 92310.

hand of the Lord journal 92210.

hand of the Lord journal 92110.

hand of the Lord journal 92010.

hand of the Lord journal 91910.

hand of the Lord journal 91810.

hand of the Lord journal 91710

hand of the Lord journal 91610.

hand of the Lord journal 91510.

hand of the Lord journal 91410.