Pals and Blessings

So here's the deal, I am lucky when it comes to friends.  

I decided to go to Logan to surprise my best friend in the whole world, Kristy, for her 21st birthday.  I don't know how or why I was lucky enough to get to have that girl in my life but oh man, I am blessed.

To help with my surprise and my sleeping arrangements my dear dear friends Sami and Sam were there for me.  I have really missed those girls!  I also got to see my lovely Christie, who I will (hopefully) be living with next year!  No greater friends in the world!  

Along with all of this fun my weekend consisted of getting to see all my music therapy pals and witness some wonderful ladies get elected for next year's presidency, talk about England, see my future apartment and catch up with Sarah Jane, eat Cafe Rio, spend lots of time in the sun, see some of my super talented friends perform, hold a beautiful baby girl and see an absolutely glorious concert.  Best concert I've ever been to in my life!  Parachute really can put on a show!  

So like I said, I'm lucky when it comes to friends.  I know that I was blessed in my decision to come to Utah State way back in high school.  I never thought I would say this, but I really love and miss Logan and it's definitely because of all of the great people I know there!  So so blessed!  

And speaking of blessed, I have been feeling that more and more lately.  As a lot of you know, I am headed to England in about 12 days.  I am absolutely beyond excited to go!!  Financially though, going to England was going to put me in a really really bad position.  Then by some miracle I received enough financial aid to pay for basically all of my study abroad plus next semester!  And then to add on top of that, my part-time job that I am currently working will turn into a full-time better paid job starting right when I get back from England.  This means that I'll be able to make enough money to get back on my feet again and make it through next semester with ease!  Blessed.  

2012

Following the trend and posting a little bit about my 2012.

This past year was a hard one but definitely worth it!  

I spent a great deal of time with my pal Mr. Walking Boot along with some time in physical therapy.

I had a fun summer working as a nanny for this sweet little lady

I said goodbye to my first FIG group...

(this picture is actually from 2011 but one of the best group shots we have)

and hello to a new one!

 I ended work with these wonderful ladies

(Also a 2011 picture... I apologize) 

And I begun work with these ones! (not all ladies this time obviously)

Somewhere in all of this I decided to go blonde.

(I don't think I have a picture from right after that....)

One of the biggest memories of 2012 was starting my music therapy practicum.  I was placed at a mommy and me pre-school.  I was definitely put at the sight with the partner and supervisor that I really needed at the time and I feel SO blessed to have been able to work with them.

Another one of my greatest memories of 2012 was when this guy got home from his mission.  I was so happy to have him back!

One word:  Zeppes!

 Lucky for me, my 2012 was filled with a lot of adventures with a lot of really great friends.  Some of these include spontaneous trips to Brigham city for Peach Days, temple square, carriage rides (eeeeeee!!!!), awkward sleeping arrangements, missionary farewells, feeding jalapeno bread to geese, being the driver for a drugged wisdom teeth removal patient, Bridal Fairs, attendance at 3 different haunted houses throughout Utah with different friends, photo-bombing in Park City, standing next to half-naked body-painted men during a football game and making it on the big screen, spinning off I-15 during a snow storm, driving around Logan at all hours looking for somewhere open that serves ice cream, taking an intermediate ice skating class and just having a great time.  

Now I've finished the year off by making some big changes.  I've decided to take a leave of absence for a semester and move home to work and take a break from college.  What a year it has been!  I am looking forward to see what 2013 holds!

I love it when...

you read someone's blog and you can just tell that they were feeling sassy that day.  

Have a good one!

Big Changes

Well....  As the title of this blog says, there are some big changes coming up in my life.  The biggest of which is that I will be taking a leave of absence from college for a semester.  Although I am extremely excited to have the break, it is still hard for me to say that I am leaving.  I started college at 15 years old and have been doing it non-stop since.  I am not sure I remember how to live life without college.  It'll be a new adventure.
Due to this big change in my life, I will be moving home for 8 months.  I have not lived at home for more than about 3 months since I moved out about 2 1/2 years ago.  It will be a full house with all the kids home.  My lucky parents went from almost empty nesters to all their kids. 
In all actuality, I am super excited to not have to spend my winter in Logan but lets be honest, most of my best and closest friends are in Logan.  That will be my biggest struggle.  But looking at the positive, this decision will hopefully make me more financially stable, more emotionally/mentally healthy, and is not permanent.  
So to my dear dear friends in Logan who are reading this post:  I love you.  I will miss you SO much!  You are more than welcome to come to St. George anytime - we have beds and hot tubs and warm(ish) weather.  We will continue our adventures together in Logan soon.  P.S.  Thanks for helping me with packing/stuffing/moving.  You are the best!  And I love you (again....)!

Reports Reports Reports

Please allow me one quick venting moment...

I hate when people break policy.
I hate paperwork.
I hate documentation.
I hate feeling like a bully.
AND
I hate reports.
I hate reports.
I hate reports.

The end.

Thanks for the venting moment.  Have a nice day!!  :D

Update Time!!

So here I am, during my first availability hours of the school year and apparently all my residents are in class so I decided to update the blog a little bit.  About an hour and a half ago, I completed the first day of my 11th semester of college.  11.  Crazy huh?  I think back to my very first day at Dixie State and good ol' SUCCESS Academy and I can remember that day so clearly.  15 years old and scared out of my mind!  Those Pine View, Snow Canyon, and Hurricane kids were so weird!  I had no idea what on earth I was doing and what I had gotten myself into.  Now here I am, 5 years later and I still have no idea what I'm doing!  It's fun to think back.

As I said before.  Today was the first day of school.  We successfully finished training week on Friday.  HALLELUJAH!!  Saturday and Sunday we had check-ins and mandatory meetings and here we are.  A couple things.  #1.  Kristy got here on Thursday!  So beyond excited to have her around again!!  #2.  Check-ins.  Definitely not my favorite thing.... except when the exceptionally lovely boys check-in.  Yes, most are freshmen....  There must be something in the water though because there are potentially some of the cutest males I have ever seen.  We have an Iron-man, God, and some other super great name among us.  Living in the freshmen residence halls = constant interaction.  Now is the time to be jealous.  (Unless you work in the Towers too, then you can just appreciate with me :D)  #3.  Mandatory meetings were yesterday.  I actually really loved them.  I had to attend both the girls and the boys meetings for my floors.  I just introduced myself and the FIG and what not.  Minus the boys threatening to lock me on their floor and not let me leave (funny boys), the meetings went really well.!  I love both the floors I'll be working with this year.  There is quite a wide variety of people.  So much diversity!  I love that so much!!  #4.  So today I was sitting in my institute class and I had a couple of impressions/thoughts hit me really hard.  The first one is just how much I love my job.  We were talking about the Savior and how he stopped to help people and perform miracles even during His last week of life when He was so busy and had so much to do.  He stood still and took the time to help those around Him.  Then we talked about taking the time to stand still and listen to the Spirit or to notice that their is someone who needs help.  Thanks to my job, I have the opportunity to do that all the time.  Working with the freshmen and just being in the "dorm-style" living space gives me the opportunity to just stop and take a second to answer questions and help out those who really do need it.  I get to help these new students figure out possibly one of the biggest experiences of their lives and I get to be part of that experience and play a role there.  Cool huh?  I feel so lucky!  In institute,we also talked about how we can be the reminders in people's lives of God and how much he loves us and thinks about us just by stopping to help someone out or saying hello or giving a compliment.  For some reason this hit me really hard.  So that is my challenge to myself (I'm making it public-ish so that I actually do it).

Now on a bit lighter note.  Wanna see how great my staff is this year?

This was our video for training.  It's an introduction to the Towers and the staff.  We're great, aren't we?  Haha.  But seriously though, I love working with this staff this year.  There have been a lot of changes but so far, all have been for the better and I am really looking forward to this year!  Anyway....  I have blabbed on quite a bit this post and wasted about half and hour of my availability hours time but.... enjoy!

Training

Well, here I am killing time before my office shift (and let me tell you, having time to kill during training is amazing!) and I decided to update on my blog a little.  Training has been quite a different experience this time around.  Being a returner makes everything different.  I'll be the first to admit that I'm probably not quite as attentive as I was during this training last year, probably not a good thing.  But I'm also not nearly as nervous and in my eyes, that is great!  So far all the changes for the Peer Mentors are good ones.  I LOVE actually fully being a part of the Towers staff this year, plus this staff is AMAZING!
So now about the week....  I was going to write a whole spill about this but then I discovered that one of my new dear PM friends wrote quite a fabulous little blog about it already so I'm going to direct you there.

http://sambam121.blogspot.com/2012/08/august-15-august-17-flooded-with-irony.html

Thanks Sami!

This week has definitely been 'flooded' with some fun memories.  I can't wait to see what is to come.
P.S.  I really recommend reading Sami's post.  It even has pictures!!