I Can Adult

So! It has yet again been a huge chunk of time since I last blogged (I  blame school!)

Just real quick I'm going to cap up all the things I've done since January so bear with me... I hope to make this blog a bit more regular with fun posts about my new hobby (See an upcoming post to find out what the hobby is!!)

So I finished out my last semester of my undergraduate! I worked full time at my job with the troubled youth and continued on at my internship as a medical social worker at McKay-Dee Hospital. I switched floors though and had a much more interesting time there and truly learned a lot.  I worked on the Surgery floor and got to see a much wider variety of things.  I worked with patients who were in car accidents, gang stabbings, as well as people having their appendix removed. It offered a lot more variety and a lot more ways I could help.  I got really good at talking to drug addicts/alcoholics during this time period as well as really helping people more than the usual walker.

Something else I really loved about the second half of my semester was the opportunity I got to sit in on a support group for cancer victims.  This was a really amazing experience as a future social worker to see how a group really works with all it's dynamics. It was also really great to get to see strangers come together to support each other--I was able to witness some pretty touching moments which seriously tested my ability to not cry and seem professional. All in all a pretty great experience! AND.....

I graduated!! It was (and still is) a kind of surreal experience to think that I've earned a degree and will not be attending school this fall. It hasn't sunk in yet and to be honest a big part of me is kind of scared to get out there and be a real adult.  Being a student is a lot less scary than being an adult because now people are going to assume I've got my act together and that I'm "responsible"... whatever that means!! I really am glad to have graduated and look forward to when I'll head back to get my Master's Degree in Social Work. In this same vein I took my licensing exam, PASSED, and recieved my official Social Work license! That's right--I can now officially call myself a social worker! Still seems weird... still tell people when I meet them that I'm going into social work and have to correct myself to say that I actually am a social worker.

I didn't really do much beside school and internship besides go on adventures with Brooks spend time with my family:

Grandpa... what fun!

We found Buffalo!

Emmaline & Lydia 

https://goo.gl/photos/wzQskWMZcURBhUZN6

I'll go ahead a have a completely different post for my trip! 

Goodbye 2014!

I really need to be a bit better at updating this, but at least it's happening--right?! Since I last posted in August of 2014, we are now in a new year (barely) and I figured I'd post something so you guys don't think I've died or something.

So today is a new year and I spent a lot of time reminiscing on what happened 'last year'.  Since August I of course started school again. It was a pretty easy semester overall but I really struggled getting up for my classes in time (as always) and my 9:00 class which would normally be something really risky for me to take because of how early it is in the morning (don't judge) was nothing compared to my 7:30am class...yup... Don't know how I did it people, but I did!! I got pretty decent grades and really enjoyed my classes--I took 3 this semester. School Social Work: I loved it, definitely something I'd be interested in; Social Work Policy: essentially a debate class, it was pretty fun; and my Practicum class.

First day at McKay-Dee

My Practicum class was something pretty different this year from most classes I've taken. It was a class/internship. My internship was at McKay-Dee Hospital and to be honest it wasn't really everything I was hoping it would be. I worked on the Joint and Spine floor and I had a really amazing supervisor who I got along with really well. I picked up on what to do pretty quickly and do a pretty good job there but it's just not something I want to do for the rest of my life or something that would make my life fill fulfilled--to be truthful I feel much more fulfilled at my job where I get paid not very well (more on that later). My supervisor applied for a new job at a school and got it--I'm so very happy for her because it's something she's wanted for awhile but it now leaves me without my awesome supervisor and I'm currently still in the lurch for where I'm going to end up next semester, so fingers crossed that it all works out for me.



The best part about school this semester was that it was basically my last semester of school!! Next semester I will have my practicum class which only meets once every other week (regrettably at 7:30am!) but I already have the syllabus and it has about 3 assignments and no tests. I will go to maybe 7 class times.  It's kind of strange to be finally finishing up school--I've been doing it for so long (19 years) with no breaks so it's hard to imagine life without it.  While I'm finishing school for right now, I don't plan to finish for good; I plan to go back to school within 2 years or so for a Masters Degree in Social Work but I definitely need a break from school for awhile (again, 19 years).

I'm still working at the boys home Youthtrack and I really enjoy my time there--for the most part. I spent Halloween, Christmas and New Years Eve with the boys and was happy to be able to make the holidays a bit better for them.  I'm not worried about not liking my internship because I really enjoy my job here and it reaffirms that I really do want to be a social worker. I've developed a lot of great relationships with the boys there and my co-workers and will a little sad to leave when I have my degree--but will definitely appreciate a better paycheck and the ability to help out on a bigger scale as an official social worker.

Quick follow up on my neices and nephews: I finally got to meet Emmaline for her baby shower but I completely spaced taking pictures with her!! It is one of my biggest regrets as she and her family have now moved to New Mexico and I missed out on all the aunt cuddle time!


Lydia Belle was born on October 31--Halloween and a week late just as her mommy planned (Poor Lydia, her mom was micromanaging her before she was even born *wink*) I got to spend a lot of time with Lydia as Megan--her mom was staying with my parents and I spent at least a night a week there for my internship.  She is just the cutest! My internship is going to be a bit harder this next semester without Megan and Lydia to hang out with afterwards as they are heading back to Grenada with Bryant at medical school there.

Lydia and I cuddling after a long day at McKay

My hand bandage made me feel like Cyndi Lauper

I hurt myself a bit this year... up until this year one of my coolest facts was that I had only ever had one stitch, it was in my lip and I pulled it out when I was a toddler. This year destroyed that fun fact as I had stitches for my mole removal, then just did a lot of stupid things. First stupid thing was the first day of school I was all excited about getting off on the right foot and having breakfast with Brooks before school and cut my hand instead of a bagel... just dumb. In Novemeber I outdid myself by slicing BETWEEN my toes by stepping on my bedframe. Can't really explain how I managed that--but don't worry I did. When asked at the E.R. if I had been drinking I answered "Nope, I'm this stupid sober!" The nurse took a couple minutes trying to figure out how to even go about stitching between someone's toes and that was pretty painful for me. The worst of it was trying to explain to everyone how I had managed to slice between my toes I wasn't entirely sure myself.


Brooks and I hit our 3 year dating anniversary on December 23. It's crazy to think that we've been dating for so long! It's crazy to look back on how much our relationship has grown and changed since we first started dating and to emphasize that we redid our first date to Temple Square, and celebrated Festivus as we did 3 years ago on our anniversary.  We've done a lot of fun things together since the summer including: visiting Tony's Grove, throwing rocks at a moose (Brooks--not me, first time seeing a moose and thought I was joking when I warned him that they charge, thank goodness it didn't), changing 6 tires (don't ask), dressing up for Halloween, going to see the lights at Temple Square, wrestling (Festivus), and just general fun and happiness. It's been a good 3 years, can't wait for what the next year brings for two adventurers like us!

Working out in style!

AND the biggest achievement of the last few months: I'm actually cooking and sort of working out now! So that's awesome!! Looking forward to another year and all the changes that will be coming!!

 Photo Dump:

Cut my hand

The moose

Tony's Grove

Brooks at Tony's Grove

I get crafty with some Pumpkins!

Harry Potter day at work with the boys

Keagan and I--he's a goof!

Max and I--when he decides it's okay for me to hold him

At the E.R. for my foot

Brooks and I were able to go to a Voice Male concert with the boys
I sort of successfully curled my own hair!!

My dad got a helicopter and my brother got it
horribly tangled in my hair

School's Out: Revenge of the Babies

SO! It's been awhile! School is pretty much officially over for me! I've finished all my assignments and everything, there's just one test that I'm taking that's unrelated to any of my courses that I need to pass if I want to go on to a Master's Degree. (I can retake it once a month if I need to but that'll get pretty pricey so I'd like to pass it my first try to keep options open) That's not until Thursday though, so I still have plenty of time to study for that. It's such a great feeling to be done with school this semester, it's felt like I've been dragging my feet through sand uphill. Yeah... It's been a rough semester filled with pretty much zero motivation for school but I think I scrapped through alright and look forward to the next semester and the opportunity to take some classes that I'm actually interested in again!

Brooks and I at Bear Lake

Speaking of next semester, I finally got my practicum placement! For those of you who do not know, a practicum is essentially a class I have to take that has an unpaid internship that I must participate in as well. I got my first choice as a medical social worker at McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden working in the Joint and Spine unit! That should be a great experience and I'm really looking forward to it. Plus: my mother works at McKay Dee so I'm looking forward to having lunch with her and hanging out with all the sick peoples! I'll be working there about 16 hours a week on Tuesday and Wednesday so for those of my friends still in Layton that means I'll be at my parent's house every Tuesday night so we should hang out for sure!

Something else that is new with my life is that everyone in my family is having babies this year!! Like literally every single one of my siblings are either expecting by the end of the year or have already delivered, it's the year for babies and I'm kind of left out... I'm thinking about making Brooks buy me a baby hedgehog so I'm not left out. He promised me once that if I caught a fish with my hands and he has yet to follow through... plus, just look at how CUTE!!!

 

I mean I need this right?! 

But in all seriousness:

Trevor & Brynn gave birth to little baby Max Gotberg on February 10th. He has gotten so big and I got to see him today for his baby blessing, he's a cute little boy!

Jessica and Mike gave birth to BIG baby Parker Tiberius (Yes, really) Stagg


On the way to see baby Parker, Aunt Nikki's car broke down and would not go faster than 20mph on the freeway. It's officially dead and gone now which is a bummer for sure.... I guess that's just the price you have to pay for adorable nephews. Speaking of nephews, Parker's older brother Keagan is not very thrilled currently about the new addition.

Keagan's not too sure about Parker yet

When asked if he wants to give Parker a kiss Keagan says NO! He's not a fan of having to share his mommy and daddy.  My mother tried bribing Keagan with pop to get him to like Parker more. She gives him some pop and says "Parker told me that you could have pop, Keagan! Isn't that nice of Parker? Say thank you, Parker!" and Keagan says "Dank oou Pawkew."

Brook and Jake have announced that they are expecting a baby girl on July 24th! This baby gets blessed to have 2 of the most adorable older sisters!! Girl power! It'll be fun to have a new baby neice after 2 new nephews.



AND! Megan and Bryant recently announced that they are expecting!  This is really great news as some of you may have known they have struggled with fertility issues which makes this baby an extra little miracle (to read more about Megan's super empowering story you should read her blog at http://bryantandmegan.blogspot.com/2014/04/two-very-different-announcements.html. They are due on October 25th and I get the privilege of getting to spoil this baby rotten because I will be seeing him at least once a week when he's born because Megan is coming back to the USA (YAY!) and living with my parents (DOUBLE YAY!) so when I'm home for my practicum dates I get to see Megan and new baby.  I'm really looking forward to Megan being back in a very selfish way because I've missed her a lot since she left to the Caribbean last year so Bryant could go to medical school and I'm happy to have her so close again without the distractions of having a husband (no offense Bryant). She'll be coming back in the end of May. The only thing I'm not too excited about is to be standing next to her in all her tanned glory while I'm still ridiculously pale.

I mean look at that tan... no one can compete with that!!

Yay for babies!! Something else that is going on this summer is Brooks has auditioned for and made it in the Grassroots Shakespeare Company!! It's very exciting for him to get back into the acting saddle. Grassroots Shakespeare Company is really unique: they don't have a director, a costumer, or light designer. The actors themselves collaborate together to put the show together. This is the way that it was done back in Shakespeare's time. They have limited rehearsal time and then they will begin touring around Utah performing outside at parks and Renaissance festivals. All the shows are FREE but the suggest you donate $3 so it's really not that big of a monetary commitment if you'd like to go see him. He's the leading man in As You Like It he has the part of Orlando.  He also has the parts of Westmoreland & Pistol in Henry V. I'd recommend seeing As You Like It if you have the choice. You can see the dates for upcoming performances here: http://www.grassrootsshakespeare.com/summer-tour.html to see if there's anything playing near you. They don't have all the performances up yet so keep checking back. Here's a sneak peek of what they're up to, I'll post more videos as time goes on!

My phone did this automatically... I think it's funny.

Now for some random pictures of what I've been up to:

Brooks at Bear Lake on the prettiest day in the whole universe!! It was gorgeous!!

Keagan and Ginger at the park, I'm not sure who liked going down the slides more!

Courtney Dixie and I at my girl's night over Spring Break

Girl's Night with my roommates and a friend

First Christmas Letter!

Merry Christmas!! (tomorrow)

This year I realized that I'm to the age where my parents no longer consider me part enough of their family to warrant more than 2 sentences in their Christmas letter--which means it's probably time I start doing my own like a big girl! So here goes:

Merry Christmas!!

This year has been filled with all sorts of awesomeness and blessings and such... blah blah blah. In February of this year, I went through a lot of training and became a CASA volunteer.  CASA stands for "Court Appointed Special Advocate" and my job is basically to be nice and play with kids... kind of. Really what I do is work for the Guardian Ad Litem (the children's lawyer in child abuse/neglect cases) and help him with a specific case. My GAL has about 200 cases that he's supposed to get to know the children on a personal level to try and determine what is in the child's best interest while also appearing in court cases--so you can imagine how appreciated I am as a volunteer member! I received a case with 2 wonderful little girls who I'd go see and take out for lunches, and check up on their school progress. Their case closed this September which happy and sad. Happy because it was a happy ending for everyone involved, but sad because now I don't see them anymore! I got to see them once in October for one of my girl's birthdays and they are doing very well. Now I'm waiting for another case to be assigned to me.

 During the summer I received an acceptance letter for the Social Work Bachelor's program at Utah State University and I've started into that. I really enjoy going to school for something I'm passionate about and my attendance and grades reflect that. I'm at the magical spot in my education where I don't have to take any more classes that I think are pointless or boring! Next semester I get to pick my practicum for the next year which is my year-long internship in my chosen area. Right now I'm thinking medical social work at a hospital, or possibly 10 other areas... it changes a lot day to day but that's the benefit of being a social worker--I can change my mind whenever I want! 

Something else that is new with me is I've started a new job.  I work at Youthtrack which is a residential treatment facility for juvenile sex-offenders.  It's all boy facility and I really enjoy my work there--I get to work with the younger group of boys, there are 8 of them all around 13 years old and they are my joy...usually! It's a very emotionally taxing job and I feel as though I've inherited 8 teenage boys with extreme behavioral problems at times.  Other times I feel like I'm making a huge difference and I'm very fond and protective of my boys.  We had a leaf fight once and I like to play Just Dance videos on YouTube for them to dance along to and that always gets pretty funny! It's tough at times as they sometimes lash out at my when they get frustrated with their treatment, but overall I find it very rewarding and I usually look forward to going to work and hanging out with my boys! 

Brooks and I have now officially been dating for 2 years as of yesterday (12/23) and I couldn't be happier.  He works at Youthtrack with me and really enjoys it (for the most part) as well.  He does well there and it has helped influence his decision to possibly change his major to psychology and start into that. He would ideally like to work at a college level counseling and doing research or he thinks he may enjoy teaching as well at a college.  I'm happy he's found something that he says feels really right and I'm excited for our debates on psychology vs social work (Social work is obviously the best!). He does very well in school and has been participating in the school's improv club/team and has on occasion taught their weekly improv class and has really enjoyed that.  

My family is doing well and I'm expecting 2 new baby nephews in the next couple months. (Probably not the correct way to phrase that, but oh well!!) I'm looking forward to 2 more babies Aunt Nikki can spoil! Hope this finds you well... blah blah... the magic of Christmas!

Nicole

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Summer Blues

If I had to pick one word to sum up my summer (Haha, 'sum up my summer' is a fun phrase!!) it would be "BORING!!" I've been so gosh darn bored!! And I know people are always like "It's only boring if you make it..." in which case I obviously hate myself because I feel so bored about everything!!

Basically all of my friends are either on missions (how dare they!), at school, or so busy working I never see them. There is also the small group of friends, which I feel no longer wish for my friendship as whenever I call them they're always 'busy' and tend to forget to invite me to things! Those savages!! Oh well, people grow apart I suppose...

It's okay though, because I'm so busy with work and making money that I don't really notice. LIES!! My work HARDLY schedules me!! They decided that they were going to hire 15 new people this summer to make my life miserable and contribute to poor college students!! I've made only $800 since April!!! I'm so poor!!

My summer hasn't been all terrible... I do fun things every now and then with people. I'd say at least twice a week I do something worthwhile. But the time in between those things is so excruciatingly dull. I usually find myself home alone everyday with no friends able to hang out with.

Because this summer has been such a bummer I can't wait for school to start again. Maybe this sucky summer was a ploy to make me better appreciate school and learning. In any case I'm counting down the days till I'm too busy with school and friends to even remember what the meaning of 'boring' is!!

I have such a busy schedule set up! And since I'm rather bored and have nothing better to do, I shall share it with you! (Sorry, you'll live!)

On Monday and Wednesdays I have my Theater History class. It's a 3 credit class and it's taught by Dr. K who rocks my socks. Then I have Theater Improv (3 credits) with Professor Olsen, which I've heard is a really fun class and I'm rather not the best at Improv so it's a good choice for me. Then I have Institute D&C with Sperry, I don't really know what to expect about this but it's been awhile since D&C. Then I have my Ballroom dance company class (2), I made the Ballroom dance team and ironically I don't really know how to Ballroom dance, so I'm going to feel really dumb with all the people who know what they're doing, but this is going to be a lot of fun for me! Finishing it off with History (3) I hate history.

On Tuesday and Thursdays I have Biology (3) which I've heard is one of--if not THE hardest class on campus, I picked out a teacher who seemed to be better than the rest, but I won't know until class starts. I also have Biology Lab (1) on Thursdays only for like 2 hours and I think I'm going to die in that class. After that I have American Folklore (3) not to be confused with 'Forklore' which is what I referred to it as once. I really have no idea what to expect from that one.

Friday all I have is Friday Forum... we'll see if I actually decide to go or not, It'll depend on the week I'm sure. I'm pretty happy about having a rather clean Friday because that means I can leave at 3 pm on Thursday for home or whatever... it just sucks because I don't have a car and so finding someone who'd be able to take me home then will be hard.

You may have noticed my theater classes, this is due to my Theater scholarship. I have to take 2 theater classes a semester. Not only that but I HAVE to audition for all the plays. I'm kind of glad that I have something forcing me to audition now, because I ended up chickening out on all the plays last year, I only auditioned for the last one which I didn't make and then for the one act plays, which I did make. So now I've got something forcing me, so I can't chicken out!! Well the thing is, if I make any of the plays they are going to take up SO much of my time. Also if I don't make the plays I can be chosen to work as a tecky, so I'll have a lot of time taken up there too. All in all I don't think I'll be bored come school and I can't wait for it to start.

Well this has been rather all over the place and kind of pity-party-ish at the beginning, but mostly sarcastically bored. And besides, I can throw a pity-party if I want to... probably the only party I'll be invited to this summer anyways... ;)

Recap

So school is over!! Goodness, it seems like time moves a lot faster when you're in college... so I think I'll do a quick catch up on what's happened since last time.

In March I went to The Festival of Colors, it's in Spanish Fork... or maybe American Fork... in any case, it was a fork. There's an Indian temple there (like not Native Americans, legit Indians), and they have this festival to celebrate spring every year. So I went with Megan (my lovely older sister), Bryant (Megan's fiancé!), and Jake (my boyfriend). It was a lot of fun. The best way for me to describe this is as a glorified chalk fight. You buy little packets of 'chalk'--turns out it's really just cornstarch that's a different color and you throw it at people at a certain time to celebrate spring.

*Before and after pictures from the Festival of Colors. L to R: Jake (bf), ME!, Bryant (Megan's fiance), Megan (my sister!).*

I really liked it because first off the temple thing, I had no clue there was something like that in Utah. It's really beautiful and I think it would be fun to go look at it sometime for fun. They had a fountain and peacocks and it was just a cool place. The chalk stuff smelled like incense, it was a good smell and when everyone threw the chalk at once, there were so many people and so much chalk that it actually blotted out the sun for awhile and you could only see like 4 feet around you. It was crazy!! We got pretty chalky and it was loads of fun, I think I'll definitely go again next year!

The next cool thing that happened was I went to a masquerade. So this summer I bought this freaking awesome mask from the Shakespearean Festival and I've NEVER had an opportunity to wear it without raising eyebrows. So finally I got my chance to shine.

*I got so many compliments and it was definitely one of the coolest--if not THE coolest, mask there!! *

<---- ake="" and="" attractive="" dance="" em="" going="" me="" re="" the="" to="" we="">

*Jake got a mask painted on later at the dance and this is what he ended up looking after he tried (unsuccessfully) to wash it off. * ------>

The dance wasn't that cool outside of the stuff they had there. I really didn't like the DJ much so we ended up spending the majority of the dance standing in a line for a carriage ride, I'd never been on a carriage ride before and it was something that was on my goal list. (I have a goal list btw) So I really wanted a ride, so we waited around forever. We were way lucky, we were the last group that they let ride :) I was really happy!! And it was everything I was hoping it was, except there wasn't romantic music playing, and there weren't pretty lights.

So that’s basically the only cool things out of school that happened, in school I was granted a theatre scholarship for next year, which is super awesome! I love theatre and it makes me quite happy, also I was getting sick and tired of band and I felt super bad because I wasn’t putting in as much time into practicing as I should have and I really didn’t like playing anymore so my heart just wasn’t in it. But the idea of getting paid to audition for the school plays and take theatre classes just makes me super happy!!

Also in relation to that I auditioned for, and made a one act play at Snow. It was called “While Shakespeare Slept” and it was basically awesome. Essentially Shakespeare’s decided to quit theatre and all of his characters come to him in a dream and talk him into writing plays. It’s a comedy and it’s especially funny if you know Shakespeare because there’s a lot of Shakespeare-inside jokes. I got to play the part of Rosalind, which I really liked because she’s one of my favorite Shakespearean girls AND I got to dress up like a Newsie essentially, which is always favorite. That finished like last week and was super fun, I really liked working with the people I did and performing for an actual audience again. It was a nice warm up for hopefully next year’s season. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

The next super awesome thing that happened to me was I auditioned for Snow College’s Ballroom Dance team… AND I MADE IT!!! I’m way excited for this. I was a classical ballerina for about 10 years and I always thought it would be way fun to learn how to Ballroom dance. Well this semester I took Latin Social I and I picked up on everything like super fast, so I decided to audition. I’m way excited, I’ve missed dancing a lot and this will be a really fun opportunity for me to dance, meet new people, try choreographing (all the dances are choreographed by the members), and travel!!

Between theatre and ballroom dancing, I can’t wait for next year to start!!

Well that’s basically all the cool things that have happened. So far I’m feeling really good about my grades. If everything goes according to plan I’ll be keeping my academic scholarship for next year, and if everything goes AMAZING, I could get the first 4.0 of my life!! Right now I’ve done most of my finals, and turned in all my papers, so all that’s left is for me to give a group speech tonight and pack up and clean and move away. It’s kind of crazy to think that this is my last week, because I feel like it should feel more monumental, but it really just feels like a normal week except I’m out of good food and don’t want to go restock.

Well… I’m thinking that’s about it for now, I’m going to have a lot more time to write on this thing now that school’s over, so expect to see more posts in the future.

P.S. Is anyone else super mad about the weather?! (For those of you not living near me it snowed hard core last night.) Jake put it perfectly when he said “It’s almost May, weather, grow up!”

My College Life Thus Far

Alright! So I'm not that great at blogging, go figure. Well I've been at Snow College for quite some time now and it's basically been my life for the past 7 months so I think it deserves some mention. So I came to Snow all by myself eager to make some new friends and be independent. I moved in and found that I didn't really click especially with my roommates with exception of my actual in-room-roommate who I absolutely loved. Sadly as with all things in my life she moved at the end of last semester and I torn between liking having my own room, missing my roomie, and the fact that without her here my room becomes a mess very quickly and stays that way despite my struggles. The rest of my roommates are very nice, friendly girls and really pretty and stuff, we're just not really best buds so I mostly hang out else where's or in my room. They're fun to talk to though!

The school part of school is going really well! I got a 3.68 last semester which is my highest GPA ever!! I was super excited!! I made it on the Dean's List last semester and I'm hoping to do even better this semester. I was really worried about college and I didn't think I was going to be able to keep my academic scholarship (You have to have a combined GPA of 3.75) but it looks like if I really buckle down this semester, that anything is possible!!

I'm taking some pretty fun classes here, I'm in 4 different band classes and I have a love-hate relationship with them all. I love band and absolutely love the people in it, but I hate how much time it consumes and how I feel so not cool when it's all over (I made it in the Advanced Band... BARELY, I'm literally last chair) because I struggle a lot more than others. I'm in Acting classes and I'm loving it SO much!! Acting is really a huge love of mine and since I've come here I've grown a lot as an actress, I'm going to audition for the plays next year, cross your fingers for me! A class I took last semester that I really loved was Courtship & Marriage, and it sounds like it's a really pathetic class for girls who are trying to get married as fast as possible but it's not!! It was my favorite class ever and it applies to my life more than any other class ever has. If anyone goes to Snow I highly recommend you take this class from Poulson because it will change your life. I communicate better, understand people better, have a more realistic outlook, and just feel like it really has helped prepare me for life more than anything else ever has. I'm currently in a Developmental Psychology class which is really interesting. I really like this class, even though it's not an easy class because everything is so interesting and applicable. It's about the psychology of how people and children develop and it's really fun to learn about and I think it'll help me be a better mother when that time comes.

Something cool is I got handpicked to live in special housing next year. The easiest way to try to describe it is as a LDS sorority. Professor's recommend girls to live there who get good grades, live LDS standards, and are friendly girls. I got recommended and after talking to the man who owns the house I'm now going to live there next year!! It's really cheap and pretty nice, like it's an old house so it's not perfect, but I'm excited for awesome roommates because this year didn't quite work out as I would have liked. 7 girls live there and it's just said to be one of the best places you can live environment and roommate-wise which is great!! I'm also excited to make friends with some really good girls because usually I lack on the ammount of friends who are female, so I'm hoping this housing will help.

Awhile ago there was problems on campus with what I like to call "The Campus Creeper" who was a guy who was coming into girl's apartments and watching them sleep. There were also a number of attacks on girls on campus last semester. It's kind of funny because I assumed that hickville Ephraim, UT would be safe from all that, but it shows you're never really safe. Well in light of all this I have learned self-defense! Like serious rip-off-ear-bruised-crotches-pencil-stabbing self defense!! I feel a lot safer knowing this and I have the opportunity to teach other girls what I know which makes me feel better to know I'm helping others feel safer too. Part of me really wants to be attacked so I can use my awesome skills and seriously handicap the guy... but not a huge part of me wants that so I think for now I'll keep having people walk home with me at night and make sure I lock my doors.

Well I can't think of anything else really school related to talk about now except that I'm not super excited to start appling to other schools. The problem of picking a Jr. College (2 years) to go to is that I have to make the huge decision of what college to go to AGAIN come next year. I'm so bad at making decisions too... silly me!! Oh well. I'm sure I'll figure it out all over again. Well I promise to try harder to update this more and let you guys know what's going on with me.