Work

Uggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. That's how I feel when I come home from work, most of the time. Especially when I've worked 8 hours ON the clock.

10 days

"10 Days until departure." That's what the Delta message told me when I logged on. Holy cow. That's coming soon and came fast!

11 days until grocery shopping again. Hopefully I'll get some shave ice that day, too.

0 days until my 4 sisters start school. (They started today. I wish they would have kept the tradition and started next Wednesday, after Labor Day.)

7 more days of work. Including today. Maybe I'll get out early some of these nights. Hopefully it's not as busy as they think it will be. And then I'm finally throwing my 3 year old ragged shirt with mouth sleeves AWAY. It's ragged and stained, let's leave it at that.

1 more Sunday. Of being the assistant primary chorister and singing with those nursery kids. Makes me kind of sad. They sure are cute.

7+ days until I find out my writing results for my Praxis test. (Praxis test was taken for my admission into the School of Education in Hawaii. It's for pre-teachers.) I passed math and reading. (Hopefully writing, too. I think I did, but we'll find out!)

3 days of packing. Planned for after I'm finished with work.

2 days with John! He'll be home on the night of the 8th. I'm leaving the evening of the 10th.

4 more stamps. For my letters that I write to missionaries. I need to buy more stamps, and write more, too. Okay, that isn't really a count-down, but I was remembering I need to write letters.

15 more days until school starts. That's 2 weeks and one day, folks. Pretty crazy.

I can't think of anymore numbers.
I'm going to miss Rexburg a lot. That's a very....special...place. Nah, I love it. But I know I'll love Hawaii, too. So I'm not too concerned.
I do wish, however, that my mom could come with me. I know how much she wants to. And I think it'd be fun to have her there for the first few days. She's pretty cool.

Growing up

Being a "grown up" isn't always fun. I've said for a long time that I wouldn't ever grow up, but I'd be an adult. I had to grow up anyway. This week.
My family left on Thursday morning for Idaho, where a family reunion was about to take place. They got to Rexburg that night and saw my brother, John, and his girlfriend, Emily. Then, on Friday night, they camped (as part of the reunion), and on Saturday they ate and visited and did family reunionish things. Saturday night they set off for Utah to visit friends and family.
How did I have to "grow up?" I had to stay home to work. This was the week of my life I've been absolutely dreading up until this point. Not only did I have to stay home because I was on the schedule (because I didn't know in time to request a week off), I also had to stay home for work because even if I COULD request the time off, I wouldn't have been able to because I need the money. This thought stirs wretched feelings inside of me every time I think about it. Okay, not really, but it doesn't make me extremely happy. It's the part where I remember how I don't want to be an adult and I never asked to become one, anyway.
I know this definitely sounds like a complaining session (probably because it is one), even though I don't want it to.
There are some really good things about being an adult, like:

• Having great friends for life who I met at BYUI,
• Being able to drive,
• Having more available access to money (although I never do spend it because I'm always saving it for school),
• Being about to help children,
• Knowing how to cook and not mess it up,
• Having knowledge,
• Going on hikes when I would like to.

Well, there are good and bad things about being a child, and there are good and bad things about being an adult. I guess when the bad times being an adult come my way, I become extremely reminiscent of my childhood. It's something I have to work on. I take challenges when they come my way. Sometimes I just like the sound of being 9 or 10 again. (Although I wouldn't have all the great friends I have now, who are people I can't live without!)

When it all boils down to it, though, I am always grateful that I am me and that I'm not anyone else. I like being me, and I have fun doing it.

Tickets

I love to travel. I guess it's a good thing that I'm going to a school that requires me to do so. Sometimes I don't love the prices on plane tickets, but I found a really good deal with Delta- one way for $165. The deal has been going on for a few days, and I couldn't pass up the good deal, so I finally bought it. (I was hesitant because I haven't found housing yet, so I don't know when my place will opens, which means I could end up being early...and I don't necessarily know what I'd do, but I know people there and so does my brother, so something will be worked out.)
I'm going on Friday, Sept. 10. I think I'm excited.

A Goal Fulfilled

Okay, I know that I'm crazy. I really am. Why? Well, the one reason in particular that I'm thinking of has to do with my strange love for the Spice Girls. (Thanks to my childhood friend, Stephanie, and her older sister, Caroline....they had an excuse. They were English and it was the '90s.)
So, somehow I'm still stuck loving them. Remember when "Spice World" came out? I do. Steph talked about it, so naturally, I wanted to see it. My mom didn't want me to, though. So, I never did see it...until tonight. More than 10 years later, I watched "Spice World" with Aimee and Stacy (who HAVE seen it). It was slightly strange, but I secretly (not secretly) liked it. The best part? Well, it had aliens for one thing....

That, folks, is why I'm strange. Because I haven't really gotten over the Spice Girls, and I like random aliens.

Where did May go? It's almost June....?....!
So:
1- why isn't it warming up outside?
2- why is it still raining? (I'm okay with rain, it just doesn't feel like May.)
3- time goes by a whole lot faster when you're older. You know it's bad when you're 20 and you know that turning 30 is coming soon. Because years go by fast. How strange.

That's all.

Sisters and School

I guess my sister Lizzie takes after me. She burned peanut butter and chocolate chips in the microwave last night. (She microwaved them for three minutes or so.) The kitchen smelled ALMOST as bad as the time that I burned my quesadilla. I guess it's prone to happen to everyone every once in a while.



So...school. Almost anyone who reads this blog (which isn't a high amount, I'm sure) would think that I'm incredibly indecisive. "First she decides to go to BYU-Hawaii, then she decides to stay at BYU-Idaho, and then she transfers to Hawaii afterall," they'd say. Now, I have my moments of indecisiveness and being noncommittal, but this time is not one of them. All I have to say is that the Lord's timing and plans are incredibly different than ours.



I am going to BYU-Hawaii because it's where the Lord wants me to be. I promise. :)

Here's the story that's been waiting:

Last April, our family visited Hawaii, and we happened to stay on the island of Oahu, which is where BYU-Hawaii is. We were about an hour away from the campus, but we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC), which is right next to the campus, and I did set foot on campus once or twice. We also went to the temple visitor's center quite a few times, which is also next to the campus.

I loved it there so much that I wanted to transfer. We talked to some people at church there who work at BYU-Hawaii, and they said BYU-Hawaii needs more Elementary Education majors, and some of the people worked in the admissions office-or had connections. ;) They said to let them know if I applied, and when I was done. So I started on my application while we were still there. But I stopped. I can't really say why, but I know that there was something that just wasn't quite right. (I was REALLY leaning on the Spirit, or at least trying to.) However, I never withdrew my application.

I ended up deferring fall semester at BYU-Idaho because I didn't have quite enough money to go, which you'll see turned out to be a good thing. I just worked during that time.

One night during winter semester, my roommate Tiffany and I were in the library. I had actually finished my homework, so I was waiting for Tiff. (Usually I had more homework than she did, so it was rather impressive that I finished!) Since I was waiting, I was on the computer. Somehow I found myself on the BYUH website. I was just reading stuff on there for fun, and I went to the admissions page. I started reading some information, and suddenly I was hit with the Spirit, which told me that it was okay now and that I could/should apply. I couldn't believe it! I didn't say anything to anyone, but I felt happy, and actually, a tiny bit scared.

That night, I went home and prayed to make sure that I was supposed to apply to BYU-Hawaii. I also prayed the next morning. Both times I wasn't really hit hard either way like I was at the library. All day long that was on my mind, and I just wanted to make sure that it was really the Spirit which told me to apply, and not myself, and asked Him for help to know. I had some time after a class, so I went to the Taylor Chapel to pray, read my scriptures, and meditate. I really had to make sure this was the right thing. Before I read or meditated, I just said a silent simple prayer, telling Heavenly Father how I felt the day before, and how I just wanted to make sure that was His will for me, and not just my high hopes or something getting in the way. I then meditated and read my scriptures, which helped. In fact, I came across a scripture in 2 Nephi 32:9. It's one of my favorite scriptures now. It really came alive to me just then.

"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."

Right then, I knew that I did indeed feel the Spirit at the library and that I needed to move forward with my application. So I did. And since I had started it 10 months before (AND HADN'T WITHDRAWN IT), I just picked up where I left off. All I needed to do was have an interview with my bishop and a member of the stake presidency.

Even though that was all I needed to do, I fixed my application essays, too. I went to library from the chapel, and worked on them for about two hours. When I got home everyone asked me where I had been, and I just told them the library. That appeased them enough (thank goodness)! I enjoyed keeping the secret to myself for a few days. It's kind of fun to have your own secrets, I found out.

I made an appointment with the bishop, and then with the member of the stake presidency. After the stake presidency interview, some of my roommates were suspcious, but I told them I couldn't talk about it yet. At this point, one of my roommates knew (out of 15...). Also, one friend Lindsay, who goes there, knew. I had to ask her some questions. Eventually I told my dad so that I could ask him if we should tell the people who we met at church that work there. He never really gave me an answer, but I decided not to tell them. I knew if it was to be, that the Lord would take care of it. But I made my dad PROMISE he wouldn't tell anyone, not even my mom.

I don't think I even had to wait a week for my admission status, although I will tell you that it felt a whole lot longer than that! There were nights of fitful and halfsleeping. I didn't even know you can worry in your sleep, but you can! Worry isn't really the best word for my condition during that time, though. Although I really did want to get in, I wasn't worried about it, because I was just leaving it up to the Lord. I would be happy to finish out my schooling at BYU-Idaho.

Now, I wasn't worried about getting accepted, but I had started to think about some other things, and became concerned. Finally, the Spirit said, "Don't worry about that right now! You don't have to worry about that until you get accepted. You'll find a way to make it work." So I stopped, and never worried again (about that).

Well, I finally got an email saying an admissions decision had been reached. My heart started racing. I spent a lot of time covering up my tracks so my roommates and other people wouldn't find out. That was okay, though, because the decision was made. I went followed the link, logged in, and read the word "Congratulations!" That was enough for me. I then thought, "Should I scream, or should I not scream? Should I or shouldn't I?" I finally decided to scream...and it came out a lot louder than I thought it would. My roommates yelled, "Are you okay?!" and came rushing in. I told them yes, and to wait just a second. I had a phone call to make.

I called Lindsay, and told her I was accepted. I promised her that she'd be the first I'd tell, and she was. I told her that I would call her back in a few minutes, because my roommates were slightly confused. So I gave the news to everyone, and all of them got really excited. Then I told my brother and my parents, and I called my other brother who didn't answer. We'll just say I was excited....

Actually, I was bouncing off the walls for the rest of the night. The next morning our ward was going to do baptisms for the dead, and I said I'd go. Needless to say, I got very little sleep that night. I think I amused quite a few people with my behavior, though.

The rest is pretty much history. That's the story of why I applied, and why I'm going there. As you can tell, I didn't make it the short version. It's the whole thing.