Making Decisions

So kind of in response to my last post (which was awhile ago, I know), I have kind of made up my mind as to what I'll be doing this next year! Yay!! I still don't have a real job anywhere, I mean come on, this market is horrible for college grads!

Even though I have no real job, I do have a place to live. :) It makes me happy to know that I will at least have a roof over my head this next year. And I talked to my current boss and if I need to, I can stay working at Miracle-Ear. It's not a good job for a college grad by any means, but at least it's a job and it will provide some type of income. That made me feel so much better when I found that out!

Now I just need to really try and find a good job for the fall... That's going to be the hard one. Any suggestions of what I can do or where to look?!

The future is looming over me!!!

So I've been thinking lately about my attitude on life. I don't think that I'm quite as excited as I should be for the things that are coming up. In a few weeks I'll be graduating (yay!) and will possibly be done with school forever!!! I don't want to say definitely, because I mean really, you never know, right? And then after the summer is over, I get to try something new for a change. Work and no school. Should be exciting, right?

I gotta be honest, it does sound exciting at times, but I think I'm pretty scared. If people say that they're not scared when they graduate and move away from college, I'm not buying it. I think that that may be my problem. With my impending graduation, I have people asking me almost daily what I'm going to do with my life. The scary part is, I HAVE NO FREAKING CLUE!!! I really don't know quite what I want to do. I am not usually an advocate of big change, especially change such as this. I may be moving away from Utah for good, or I may be staying. I might stay on the west or I might go back to the east. I just don't know! I wish that my future would just be handed to me. That would really help my situation a lot.

I had a friend who recently told me that I'm not excited about anything anymore. That made me sad to hear. I don't think that I've always been like that. I want to be the carefree person that I've been in years past, but I don't know quite how to be that person. I've had a lot of things happen in the last year that has weighed me down, and one of the major ones is this graduation. School is such a safety zone. I've been doing school basically ever since I can remember. I don't want to do school just because I'm comfortable with it. If I go back to school, I want it to be for something that I truly love and because I want to progress in life.

I guess this sounds just a little bit whiny. Ok ok, it sounds really whiny. I am just scared of what the future holds. I try not to show it that much, but I guess it's coming out to those people that know me pretty well. I'm going to try and do my best to just be calm and accept things as they come. That won't be too hard, will it?!

Memories of my Dad

I am definitely not the best blogger. Much of the reason why I have not written for many months was because of my Dad. After an almost five year battle with cancer, he finally was overcome and passed away on November 13, 2009. About a week and a half before that, he was admitted into the hospital with the Swine Flu. Isn't that ironic? Who knew that he'd be a swine flu victim. I certainly didn't think that!

My dad was first diagnosed with Prostate Cancer during the last few months of my senior year in high school, in 2005. There have been many miracles in preserving his life. The odds were never with him. If there was some rare side effect of a treatment, he would almost always contract it. It was amazing the fight that he put up. After a few years, he was finally in remission for the prostate cancer, but he was found to have an even more deadly one, multiple myeloma. This is one of the things that he eventually died from.

All of the kids in my family got an email on Wednesday night telling us of the gravity of the situation. He had been put into a medically induced coma, and as they reduced the medicine, he didn't come out of it. We all flew home as soon as we could. It was so nice to be there with my siblings and my mom. We all had known that it would eventually come to this, but we never imagined that it would be this soon. He had fought so hard and prior to this sick spell, had been feeling better than he had in a few years. Earlier in the year, around the fourth of July, my entire family, all 25 of us, had gotten together. We were able to take some very nice family pictures and have a great vacation together. It was a wonderful time, and I have some great memories that I will cherish forever.

The last few months have been very difficult. Luckily, I have some of the best roommates and friends. They have been with me every step of the way. I try and remember what I loved about my dad. I loved that I had the opportunity to live in the house alone with my parents for a few years. I was able to grow so much closer to them because of that experience. I love that he was always there for me. He would always say "I love you" when he was on the phone, and I knew that he truly meant it. I love that he instilled the love of music in me. I loved falling asleep to him playing the piano. Because of his influence, I love playing the piano. I love that he loved the gospel so much. He truly loved the Lord and instilled that in all of us as his children. I love that he loved my mom so much. My parents were never super affectionate in front of us children, but there was a deep love that was very apparent. It showed me how I want someone to treat me someday. I know that I will see him again and I am so grateful for that knowledge!

Ski Season

For the last two months, I have had the wonderful opportunity to take a ski class! I figure, what could be better than spending my last semester up on a beautiful mountain? There's not much that came to mind, let me tell you!

So the first time that I ever went skiing, was last year. I know, right? I've been living so close to some of the best mountains in the world for five years, and it took me that long to go. Well, I've repented and am doing my best to correct the situation. :)

My ski class started the first week of school, and ended the last week of February. We would go on Wednesday afternoons and just ski for a few hours. It was so nice to have some real instruction. I finally know at least a little bit of the correct technique. It is becoming so fun and I go as often as I can. I do not know where I will be next year, and so I'm definitely taking advantage of the close resorts while I can! It's just fun to get out and enjoy nature, no matter what capacity you are doing it.

Craziness

So this semester has been really busy! I haven't had the time, or the inclination to be honest, to update this until now. This semester has been a busy one, but it has been filled with lots of fun too. I guess I'll just go over some of the hightlights of the semester so far! First of all, I decided to defer my internship until either next semester or the summer. I did it for a few weeks, and then just got too busy to do everything to my own satisfaction. I talked to my internship director and he said that it would be just fine if I waited until later when I was able to devote more time to it. So I won't have to worry about that until later! It was such a stress off my back and I've been much more balanced since I stopped that.

Second of all, this is such a busy semester, school-wise, that I haven't been able to do as many fun things as I would've liked to. But here are a few things that I've done over the last few months.

I went to a soccer game with my roommate Ellisha and some friends from the ward, Kory and Jordan. I'm not usually a fan of soccer, but this was fun!

Me and Ellisha happy to be out in the Sun!

We also went camping a few weeks into school. The next morning, some of the boys that came biked up to the Hot Pots, but most of us girls just came to camp and have an adventure!

Here are the girls in the group, from left to right: Anaka, Cecilia, Katelyn, Karin, Sarah

So Tyler brought this lollipop thing that had plastic lips on the outside. Doesn't he look great?!

This is me and Sarah. She's becoming one of my best friends! She's just so great!!!

Look who we found the next morning?! Unfortunately, Benj didn't come with anyone and didn't know where we camped. He slept in his car about 50 yards from where we were because he showed up about 10 minutes after we all went to bed. Sad Day!
So here's the whole group the next morning (don't worry, we had two separate tents, one for the boys and one for the girls) From left to right: Rick, Karin, Andy, Tyler, Anaka, Cecilia, Kately, Sarah, Benj. Rick couldn't find our campsite either, we should've given better directions.... :(

I decided to do something different with my hair a few weeks ago. I have never done anything except cut my hair. I've never died it or permed it or anything. I decided to try a very loose perm! It's very different, but I like it!

Here I am with my wonderful hairdressers! Thanks again girls, I love it!

Unfortunately, I don't have a great picture of the finished product, but you can see that my hair is wavy in the next few pictures.

At a last minute decision, a bunch of us decided to go to the midnight showing of Where the Wild Things Are. It was a great movie. Way different than I thought it was going be, but I liked it. We went and got our tickets early and then just hung out at the mall. The four of us that were there at that point decided to get into the photo booth and take pictures with my camera. Here's one of them. I love that both Rick and Ellisha have their eyes closed. It's just great!

Here's a little better picture of the hair. You can see a little bit of wave, right?

It's been a crazy couple of months, but obviously we've made time to have at least a little bit of fun!

Fall Semester

So, I thought that this was going to be a busy semester. I'm working about 16 hours a week and am taking 15 credits. This week, all of that changed.... Ok, not really, but I got even busier, but definitely in a good way. I got a flyer for an internship doing Human Resources. I called and got an interview, and turns out that they wanted me! So along with work and school, I will be starting an internship with 1st Choice Home Health and Hospice today. It'll be a lot of work, but I'm looking forward to the challenge and to keeping myself busy.

Oh, and BYU Football is totally going to rock this season!!!

Summer Fun

Summer is rapidly coming to a close and school will be starting in just a few days. Here are a few of the fun things that I did with my friends and family this summer!

Here are the trips that I went on:
-Went to Moab for the first time where we slept under the stars and hiked Arches
-Went to Havasupi
-Had a family reunion and got to see all 24 memebers of my immediate family

As for staying in Provo, here are some fun things I did:
-Threw a football almost every day with my friends that lived across the street
-Ate plenty of popsicles, of many different varieties
-Went on scooter rides where we played around campus and also played sardines (on different occasions)
-Went to the pool on most Saturdays
-Watched movies in Rock Canyon Park
-Saw a friend win the championship game with his city league hockey team
-Watched a bunch of city league basketball games
-Went to 2 demolition derbies
-Hiked to a few different Hot Pots
-Went to a drive-in
-Had a bunch of good friends get married
-Went on some awkward dates
-Went on some really good dates too
-Was on a float in a parade
-Learned how to drive stick just a little better
-Said goodbye to my roommate who left for this next semester
-Started running almost every day
-Got an iPod
-Finally replaced my old sandals
-Got aviator sunglasses
-Went to Taco Tuesday a few times
-Went camping a bunch
-Went to Temple Square
-Played night games
-Read some good books
-Went to a Temple Dedication
-Went Ice Skating for the first time in about 3 years
-Went Urban Bike Riding
-Watched a few firework shows
-Went kayaking down the Provo River

Those are just some of the things that I can think of right now off the top of my head. Overall, it was a great summer. There were definitely high points and low points to it, but as a whole, it was definitely a Summer O' Fun!!

Brand New Day

So it is a brand new day for me! (If you can name the artist of the song Brand New Day, I'll be so proud!) I have had these beloved sandals for at least 5 years, probably more like 6 or 7. I wear them every day during the summer and just love them, they're comfortable and worn in perfectly!

You can see how worn they are. The right shoe was totally falling apart. At the toe, it was going through the 5th layer, I believe, and at the heel, the corduroy was completely falling off.

I had been telling myself this entire summer that I needed to get new sandals and throw these ones away. Well, the day finally came that I got new sandals! It was a sad experience, throwing these old ones away, since I had had them for so long.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any corduroy sandals, which made me sad. But, on the up side, I waited until I found some leather sandals that I really like and that are really comfortable. So overall, it was a good day!

Adventure Monday

So my roommate Heather has had either Adventure Thursdays or Wednesdays for the last few summers. Last night, however, was most definitely an Adventure Monday. After FHE, a bunch of us got on scooters and painted Provo Red! Ok, so we really just rode around campus, but it's basically the same thing! After doing that, and then eating popsicles, we got some car chalk, and wrote on some car windows. Actually, my friend Jonathan was the one that wrote on car windows while the rest of us watched. While we were doing that, we found a sled and decided to go to Kiwanis park and go "wakeboarding" while the sled was being pulled by a scooter. As the others in the group were doing that, Jonathan and I drove on the grass that was conveniently being watered. As we swerved to miss one of the sprinklers, we hit a puddle and consequently crashed. We are both fine, as is the scooter, but we got some sweet pictures!

So these pictures are not very flattering of me, but you can get the idea of our crash at least!

Here's Jonathan's dirty behind, which is where he fell.

And here is both of us with our dirtier sides towards the camera

Can't you just see the concern on our faces for the scooter named Peanut?!
I love our faces in this picture!
And there's grass stuck in the scooter, if you can't see that closely.

Demolition Derby

I went to my first even demolition derby on Saturday night. I didn't even know that Utah had stuff like that! I honestly never would've pegged myself to go to one of those, but I actually really enjoyed it. It was super loud and I got sprayed with dirt (we were in the 4th row), but it was awesome! It was so cool to see these cars that were completely gutted just crash into each other. The whole point, which I was unaware of earlier, is to be the last car running or the last car to make a hit if there's only a few left. Basically, it was a big version of bumper cars, which I LOVE!

Some of the highlights were:

• There were 3 rounds of finals, the normal round, the love bug round, and the truck round. I picked the winners of the love bug and truck round, which were a little pink car and a 15 passenger van. My pick for the normal cars came in 3rd, which still isn't too shabby!
• One of the little cars rolled - the driver was fine, but it was freakin sweet!
• In the powder puff round, one of the girls had the back of her car on top of another one.
• Two people had to be taken out by ambulances and one had to be cut out with the jaws of life - kinda scary, but definitely something that I've never seen in real life before.
• There was a fireworks show at the end! I love fireworks, and so that made 3 shows that I've seen in the last few weeks. Yay for Utah and their abundance of fireworks!