Life is crazy and Thanksgiving was fun.

November was crazy. I think I am trying to swim up Niagara falls. Being an adult is crazy, I don’t think I want to be an adult. I got a job at Discovery Ranch helping with math and every other subject in school, turns out I’m still bad at poetry and still have no clue where rivers are in the US. But on the bright side I know every answer to the math questions. In November I started working as a trainer at Brian Head and life has become super crazy. Two jobs and school was a crazy idea. Just when I was starting to get the hang of it finals start to come around and life gets crazy again. I have pretty much worked nonstop since Tuesday night. Teaching snowboarding all day is way more work than riding for fun all day. My brain and legs are very grateful that I have class tomorrow instead of work. I know right, when did math class become easier than being an adult? On Monday  I kept forgetting things I needed to do and by the end of the day when people asked me stuff I told them I would be in my blanket fort coloring for the rest of the week my brain had turned off, most of my friends wanted to join in. haha.

For Thanksgiving my mom and dad came down and brought us firewood, a pecan pie from auntie, cookies from gma, homemade mashed potatoes, and two roasts so that we could have leftovers for the rest of the week.  After we unloaded everything we went to Denny’s for dinner that night then drove back up to Brian Head and stayed at a hotel up there for the night. It was fun, and I got to sleep in since I was already up at Brian Head and didn’t have to wake up early to catch the shuttle.

I am really excited for finals to be over so I can just sleep every day after work and not worry about the rest of the stuff I need to do. 

Get a better attitude!!

School has been crazy!! The last week and a half have been super crazy and I was looking forward to a weekend of sleeping past 6 am. But life likes to remind you not to make plans to be lazy.

So I’ll start with saying I have three classes, three math classes that is, but those three take more time than any full time schedule I’ve had thus far. And, of course, they all like to have tests or papers due on the same day. So like 5 days before the tests everyone starts to ramp up their studying, which means study group at 8 am. Do you know how hard it is to make a coherent proof at 8 am after staying up until midnight doing homework? Well it’s pretty much like trying to understand what a crying 2 year old is trying to say with a mouthful of food and then committing it to memory to recall and put into grown up words (ok so maybe you do). Maybe these classes aren't preparing me for teaching teenagers math but rather to remember stuff on no sleep at all! LOL. I finished my tests and papers on Wednesday and was looking forward to a sleep in day and a lazy weekend. That did not happen.

Wednesday night I was asked if I could be at a job interview the next morning at 8 am. Man, there went my sleep in day. Then later that day during institute I realized that the week I spent studying I had forgotten to read my scriptures and was way behind in the reading and had no clue what we were talking about. Ok so I know the story but knowing the primary version and the I read it last night and know what questions I have and what I understand  what happened and why are very different. That’s when I realized maybe my week would have been less stressful if I had made time for the Lord. But I was still looking forward to the lazy weekend.

But of course I go to orchestra for the first time that week (prepared to play a really hard piece) and we play some really easy pieces and I find out that my weekend has now been given up to orchestra. We were hosting high school honors orchestras and we would be playing with them. We had rehearsal Friday night from 5-9 pm then Saturday we had classes and rehearsals from 8 am to 7 pm.  So long for my sleep-in weekend. I was really mad about this because I am not actually in this class I just show up when I can to help them out because they only have two freshmen cellists and he wants someone in each section that knows the system and can help out. I had a really bad attitude about this and after the first rehearsal Friday night I was even more mad. The high school cellists and even the two freshmen cellists were playing horribly. And I guess the college got the music like two weeks ago (the high school students had had it for a month) and they had had time to practice. I had played the pieces once in class on Thursday and the guest conductor had the cellists play one part of the piece one by one and I was the only one who played it correctly! This did not help my mood and my motivation was very quickly deteriorating. I woke up the next morning and went to the first rehearsal and I don't know what the high school students did between 9 pm and 9 am but they played amazing! They blew me away! My motivation to actually try was coming back. And at the end it turned out to be a really good experience and I even ended up liking it.

A few reflections of the week remind me:

That I need to remember to do laundry more than when I have absolutely nothing left to wear.

That I absolutely need to make time for scripture study.

That I need to have a better attitude about things.

And that even though it may look like the worst thing on earth right now, it may turn out to be really good. (Even if you miss the free dinner and the relief society broadcast.)

So there is how I realized that sometimes I need to have a better attitude even if it seems impossible for it to end well.    

Kanarraville Falls

We went to Kanarraville Falls for a study break yesterday. It was much needed and very well enjoyed.
I took my two freshmen roommates and went for an adventure.

This is my roommate Jessica. She's not what you'd call

an adventurous person, unless reading about

adventures counts

She was continually wiping her hands clean.

It made me laugh. I had a good time hiking up random

stuff while waiting for her to catch up

The entrance to the narrows

We put the camera on rocks as we went along

some of the pictures turned out really cool

I love this picture because I put the camera

on a timer and I was running to get in the shot 

and I was falling over right as the picture took.

The "water slide" 

So about halfway through the hike they were like,

ummm we need to be back by 6 (It was like 4 

and we were at the top) for the pow wow

for a class. So we didn't take very many pictures 

on the way back. 

School!!

Another school year has started and everything that comes with it. All the friends and fun and all the classes and stress. I was really excited for this year, this was going to be MY year. I have roommates that are friends, I was going to pass all of my classes and everything was going to be awesome!! I guess sometimes life has crazy plot changes.

I moved on the 17^th and had a week to get settled before classes started. That was a good week, I got settled, played a lot of ultimate Frisbee, and had a relaxing week of Netflix.

Then someone at Walmart decided they needed my phone more than I did. That really sucked. Like the worst thing to start a semester off ever! Then just to pour some lemon juice in the wound the school gave me the runaround on getting a credit to be accepted from the study abroad I went on.

Now for the fun that the first week has brought. Classes are crazy! It’s only been one week and I’m like whoa back it up, what are we talking about. What just went on? And other times I’m like say what?!! That works EVERY time, like I can always do this and I always get the right answer?

Also not having a phone for the first 3-4 days of class was liberating and frustrating at the same time. On one had I never had to worry about if anyone texted me and asked me to do anything cause I didn’t have a phone, on the other hand I had no clue when the fun stuff was happening. Also I couldn’t google, man I am addicted to google, when I want to know something I want to know it now. But pondering stuff and deciding what is really important enough to remember to do later is sometimes better.

After using the new windows 8 tablet I kinda wish all computers were touch screens. Like when you’re typing and want to scroll down no need to figure out where the mouse went just touch the screen and move the page. So many times I’ve tried to touch my computer to make it do something. Also on the note of computers, 6 people trying to use the same internet connection to watch Netflix at the same time does not work so well. Also we don’t have a TV so unless we go out in the crazy rain storms or 90°+ weather the internet is our form of entertainment. Ok so we have board games but Uno and every version of apples to apples are only fun for so long. Or you know do school work but that’s not fun.

Let me tell you a little bit about the house we live in. The kitchen is a one person at best kitchen, there is one outlet, and maybe 2 feet of counter space. I live in a room that was added on, that is also falling off. I walk through my closet to get to my room, I also walk through the mudroom to get to my room, and there is no forced air in my side of the house. It’s gonna be a fun adventure this year!!

I think I’m ready to take this year by storm, it’s just gotta get better from here right?!!

Now for a few pictures of the awesome house I live in.        

Here's our kitchen, note I'm standing in the living room

this picture makes it look way bigger than it is.

the one outlet is behind the microwave

This is the door to my room, the shelves

are our version of a pantry

This is my closet, you cant really go in it

without knocking something down

This is my room. What is up with the dark curtain you

might ask? Well the view out that window isn't really private

Ohh and did I mention that the light over the door

is a safety light so it stays on all night long? 

Yea the first few nights were not good I promptly went 

out and bought a blackout curtain, now it's much better.

  

Ohh I forgot about the crazy adventure I went on for Dylan. So you all probably know Dylan crashed while longboarding again, what’s new? So when he crashed he lost his board so I went up to find it. That was possibly the creepiest place I have ever been. The whole time I was up there I felt like someone was watching, not like there were people around and they were wondering why I was looking around in the bushed but like a completely deserted place with absolutely no one around and someone watching you feeling. I told Dylan they were on their own the next time they lose something up there. 

California!!

I went to house sit for my Auntie Lisa and had a blast at the beach with them before they left. Also I kinda like having absolutely nothing to do. I like just waking up and seeing what I feel like doing then going and doing that. I swam, and watched TV, and just did whatever I felt like.

On our way to the beach

me boogie boarding

He filled that bucket full of water to put

in his mote around his castle

he sure loves to throw sand

there were lots of crabs on the rocks

His towel was super heroes so he was

being a hero with his cape

It was sooooooo sooooo soooo cold

the sun came out for like 5 min when we were

about to leave 

Jojo has a hard time standing still long enough to take a picture

On the way home from the beach

On Sunday I went over to Tremayne and Robin's for dinner.

Anthony showed me his tree fort and archery.

I stopped on the way out home and took this picture

When I was bored I would go out to the pool and put my camera on a 

ten second timer and run over to the rocks and jump. 

self timers are fun

I went to the beach with Grandma and Grandpa and took awesome sunset pictures

Grandpa was walking fast the whole time and I kept 

telling him to slow down so this was

his slow mode walk

Oceanside harbor