BYU...

I will now have to give up my love and adoration for the Utah State Aggies at the end of the semester and switch over to our rival, BYU and cheer for the Cougars. I found out Friday night that I was accepted into BYU starting Fall of 2009. Despite our basketball team's domination this year (20-1, they are tied for the most wins with Oklahoma), I have decided to leave the wonderful Aggies and soon call myself a Cougar.

Random-ness

Some friends asked me to do this on Facebook (the wonderful website that uses up all my free time and then some). And then I thought I would add it here for the enjoyment of my family and friends!

Some Random things about me…

1) I always sleep on the left side of the bed if I have a choice.
2) When I was younger, my sister convinced me that I only had 99 “feelings” and one day she hurt my last one so I cried because I thought I could never feel any emotions for the rest of my life. (I was/am still really gullible.)
3) I love camp and can’t wait to start my own camp one day.
4) I LOVE countdowns…and just to let you all know, 94 days until I come home!
5) I would do anything for my bestest friends. Even beat up creepy people if they asked me.
6) When I run, I have a unique breathing pattern. I inhale twice on steps 1 and 2 and exhale once on steps 3 and 4.
7) When given the choice, I hate being touched.
8) I want to run another marathon in Madagascar or South Africa.
9) When I was young, I played school with my older siblings and I was the teacher. I wrote quizzes and everything for them. Every time, they would yell “RECESS” and run up the stairs. I just cried.
10) I really love looking at the stars.
11) I want to marry someone with two tall alleles/genes so my kids actually have a chance at being tall. (The short life is not that grand.)
12) When mail comes, my roommate and I sing the Blue’s Clues song!
13) With a passion, I hate the movie Aladdin.
14) My favorite memory is when my brother got hit with a birdhouse after going sledding with my dog. It was a marvelous time.
15) Ice cream is the best food group in the world. I have a bottomless stomach for ice cream.
16) Running is the best thing in the world no matter what the weather is like.
17) I dream of going to Europe (with Jackie from Wisconsin!) South Africa, Morocco and the national parks in Canada.
18) When I was little, I wanted to become a meteorologist. I literally watched the WeatherChannel for hours at a time!
19) Sarcasm is the best and worst parts of my personality.
20) I have blown up a cheetos bag in the microwave. You should try it some time! It is the coolest thing in the world!

Exciting Weekends in Utah!

Classes have been in session for over two weeks now and yet it feels like I never left school. I like most of my classes but can tell that this semester will be far more challenging than last. Each of my classes has more reading assignments and more scheduled tests and exams. Plus, many of the classes give essay exams in addition to multiple choice tests, which I haven’t had since my senior year in high school. I am hoping I did not lose much in my writing abilities since then. One of my classes, Parks and Recreation, is very interesting. The professor used to live in Wisconsin and actually was the previous camp director at the camp I work at. It was very fun to meet him finally and talk about camp and how it is progressing. I am taking another statistics class this semester that is extremely boring since it is a review from junior year. The professor is from Germany and has a very rich accent and that is probably the best part of the class. We spent the last few days learning about how to find the mean… and it is a 2000 level (at most universities, that would be a 200 level) class.
Last weekend on the 11th, I had the opportunity to go listen to President Monson speak in Provo, Utah. He spoke at BYU so some of my friends from USU drove down for it. It was a long day but well worth it. It was absolutely amazing to hear him speak again. We also got to have a homemade dinner at Heather (my roommate’s) house in Highland, which is located about 30 minutes outside of Provo.
This last weekend, we had the delight of having a three day weekend. I had to work most of last week and put in almost 30 hours within four days. But then Sunday and Monday, I was able to rest and relax. On Monday, some friends and I decided to go hiking in the mountains. We left too late though and ended up walking back down the mountain in the dark. But we arrived home safely, no worries. I included some pictures of the hike for some enjoyment.

this is in the Wind Caves up in the Logan Canyon.
Yep, they're pretty much the coolest thing in the world!

The New Year in Utah

I arrived back in Logan on Saturday. Classes for spring semester started on Monday. I have had most of my classes so far and most of them are good. I am taking the following classes: Political Science, History, 2 religion courses, Statistics, Life Science and Introduction to Parks and Recreation. It is 20 credits total but I have Thursdays off completely.
The rest of my winter break was pretty good. I got to spend some more time with friends and family. Christmas was a marvelous time spent with my family. My brother and sister-in-law came up for Christmas Eve from Kansas and it was nice to see them again. After they left, they ended up rolling their truck but thankfully they were okay. Other than a few scratches, cuts and bruises, they are fine, just a little shook up. I also spent a few days over break working at the YMCA camp that I worked at throughout high school. It was great to see the campers again and also to hang out with some of the staff. With this are some pictures of my break and Christmas.
2009 has arrived all too quickly and I have made a few resolutions that I doubt I will stick to. One is to be more optimistic. People have told me many times that I am very pessimistic. I always reply saying that I am just realistic but somehow that doesn’t work for people. I do not really know how I should become more optimistic but we will see how the year goes. My other resolution is to be less sarcastic. More often than not, my sarcasm gets me in trouble or I fail to catch myself before I say something that probably should not have been said. I believe this will correlate with me being more nice and kind to people around me. My last resolution is to run two marathons this year. There is one in July that I am running with a friend from camp and perhaps another friend. Then I plan on running the Top of Utah Marathon again in September. Even though I vowed after my marathon in September that I would never run again, I really want to see if I can get better. And I think it will be fun to do it with a friend this time!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

I arrived back in Wisconsin on the 13th and was quickly reintroduced to the Wisconsin winters. I soon discovered that I was being spoiled in Utah with temperatures in the 30’s and 40’s because when I returned to Wisconsin, the temperatures plummeted into the negative digits. I am grateful, however, that I did not have to walk to classes in this kind of weather! Before I left school, we got about 6-8 inches of snow surprisingly so I am looking forward to returning in January and being able to enjoy snow for the next few months of school.
Since being home, I have visited a lot of people, which was nice. I went back to my high school on Monday to visit my orchestra teacher who I had since fifth grade. I was able to see the other viola players that I played with the last few years. The high school has changed a lot and I got yelled at for taking my cell phone out in the office. I realized how happy and thankful I am to be in college now.
I drove down to Milwaukee for a few days to visit a good friend of mine, Jackie. She and I worked at the YMCA camp in Wausau for the past few years together and she goes to Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). She plays volleyball and basketball in college so I went down to watch two of her basketball games. The first one was cancelled though because of poor weather conditions but we had a lot of fun instead. The second game was awesome with her team winning over Mt. Mary College with a score of 73 to 45. It was the first time I have seen Jackie play so it was really fun and she was the leading scorer for the game! It was great time to spend with her. Included are some pictures from the visit with her.
Plans for the break include Christmas shopping with my sister, making Christmas cookies, spending time with my family, working at the YMCA camp and hanging out with friends. It is great to be home for another two weeks! It will go fast!

USU Aggies vs. BYU Cougars

Last Saturday, I went down to Salt Lake City to watch the biggest basketball game of the year (at least in my mind). Utah State played instate rival, Brigham Young University. Because the BYU basketball coach did not want to play at our school due to the level of noise and our fans, we met on neutral ground and played at the Energy Solutions Arena. That is home to the Utah Jazz. It was a pretty even game having both teams come in undefeated for the season. Sadly, my Utah State Aggies could not hold up to the BYU Cougars and lost with a final score of 68 to 63. I think we were ahead only a few times throughout the whole game. I am proud that we only lost by five compared to our football match-up earlier this year where we were crushed by BYU. I went to the game with Janet and some of her friends so I was the only USU student among a sea of BYU Cougar fans. It was still an enjoyable game despite that.
After the game, Janet and I went to Temple Square to see the lights. During the holiday season, Temple Square puts up a lot of Christmas lights and also nativity scenes. While it was packed with people, it was really neat to see the lights and all. Here are some pictures from it.

This week is full of studying and finals. I had my first final this morning and it went well. I had to present a final project and I got an A on it. I have four more tests this week but they are all on Tuesday or Wednesday. I come home this Saturday and will be there for three weeks. Even though I just went home I am still super excited to see everyone again!

Back In Utah

After surprising my family for Thanksgiving, I left on Sunday. I was expected to arrive in Salt Lake at 10:10pm and then be home by midnight. I did not get home until close to 5am in the morning. Lesson learned: do not fly to Chicago on a snowy day after Thanksgiving. My flight from Central Wisconsin Airport was delayed due to snow for three hours. When we finally left at 6:45pm, I had already missed my connecting flight. However, since the snowy weather was also occurring in Chicago, my connection was also delayed to 10:30. However, the plane we were supposed to take landed in Chicago with a cracked windshield so the airlines had to find another plane for us. We didn't leave Chicago until 1am central time. By the time we left, all I and the other passengers could do was just laugh. Thankfully I was able to sleep on the 3 hour plane ride and then be alert for the drive home. My first class wasn't until 9:30 this morning so I squeezed in about 3 hours of sleep. I am also thankful that I did not have to spend a night in the airport.

As I promised, here are some pictures from the week home.

This is my neice, Megan. She is trying on her new dress up clothes. She will be three in March.

This is our dog, Tilly. Brandon and Bonnie bought the Santa suit for their dog, Outlaw. Unfortunatly, it was too small for Outlaw so Tilly got it. It lights up around the belt buckle!

This is my sister, Trescha and I trying to be serious but our brother, Brandon kept making us laugh.

And finally a nice picture. My brother is on the left, Bonnie, his wife, is next. Then comes me and my sister Trescha. Kevin, Trescha's husband was not with us. I would like to point out that it seems like I am slightly taller than Trescha! That is a big accomplishment for me!